Yes, Darlings, The Bat Sequence Is In The Book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                               Remember when the bat flies through the window, over Ray Milland, in the 1945 movie, "The Lost Weekend?"  I just thought that bat was the cutest thing, girls, and it helped give some levity to the movie--a levity that is not in Charles Jackson's book, having just read it.

                                Put this on your shelf, alongside Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar," and Radclyffe Hall's "The Well Of Loneliness."  This is a REAL downer. Not that Jackson can be blamed; he is not only writing about a man's experiences with alcoholism, but is doing so from an autobiogrpahic perspective.  And Jackson's was not a success story, never fully recovering, dying in 1968, from an overdose of Seconal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                 Reading "The Lost Weekend" is like watching "Leaving Las Vegas" in slow motion.  The prose style is almost Joycean at times; the ambiance of New York locale, illness and affliction, is skillfully captured, yet I could not wait until I finished it, so I could go on to something else.  And the bat does not come off as cute in the book, as it does in the movie

                                    The book should be on the shelf of every recovering alcoholic; it is that effective a cautionary tale.  Those who deny theirs (alcoholism) won't have sense enough to read it. And Jackson has the guts to end the book on a downward note.  "Carousel," at its saddest, still offers hope; "The Lost Weekend" is as bleak as they come.

                                      As for its examination of homosexuality, it is done so in the closeted context of the times it took place in, (the film was made in 1945, the novel suggests it takes place in 1936) which gay men today may be able to understand from an historical perspective, but will have difficulty accepting it for themselves.  You know I did, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                        The book has been out of print for years, so, when I discovered it had been reissued, curiosity got the best of me.  I have no regrets about reading it, and it is well written enough, but this is not a reading experience I want to return to, anytime soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                          By the time I was finished, I was ready for another Lauren Weisberger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!