The Alcoholic - Softcover

Ames, Jonathan

3.76 out of 5 stars

3,174 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1848560990 ISBN 13: 9781848560994

Publisher: Titan Books Ltd, 2009

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Jonathan A. is a boozed-up, coked-out, sexually confused, hopelessly romantic and, of course, entirely fictional novelist (who bears no resemblance to Jonathan Ames). For the fictional Jonathan, writing and drinking come easy. The hard parts of life are love and hope...From a touching relationship between Jonathan and his aging great aunt, to an inebriated evening with an amorous, octogenarian dwarf, to the devastating aftermath of 9/11, this original graphic novel tells a story at once about how our lives fall to pieces - and the enduring human struggle to put things back together again. Jonathan Ames, author of "What's Not to Love?" and Dean Haspiel ("The Quitter") present a story which is at once hilarious, excruciating, bizarre and universal. Warning: Adults Only.

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About the Author

Jonathan Ames is a columnist, author, screenwriter, raconteur and sometime pugilist who resides in New York City. He is the author of several collections of journalism and novels including I Pass Like Night and Wake Up, Sir! Dean Haspiel is the Eisner award-nominated artist of Billy Dogma, Opposable Thumbs and many more independent comics, including American Splendor.

Review

From Booklist
With stints as a journalist, novelist, and screenwriter under his belt, Ames tries his hand for the first time at the graphic novel. Beautifully illustrated in moody, expressionist panels by Haspiel, The Alcoholic tells the story of Ames' alter ego, Jonathan A., and his self-destructive love affair with the bottle. Jonathan's taste for liquor begins, as for many with his affliction, during illicit high-school parties. From there, his binges follow their own unique trajectory, keeping pace with an undistinguished college career and following him into an oddly successful livelihood as writer of hard-boiled detective fiction. Ames lends a quirky flavor to Jonathan's occasionally nightmarish narrative by eavesdropping on his relationship with his aging great-aunt; the perplexing estrangement of his best friend, Sal; a heartbreaking romance with a woman he refers to as "San Francisco"; and a drunken midlife tryst with an octogenarian dwarf. Yet Jonathan's tale is ultimately a universal one, reflecting the struggles all of us have in navigating the tributaries of career and relationships while keeping personal demons at bay. --Carl Hays

Rarely does a collaboration produce a graphic novel of such literary and artistic merit. -- Kirkus Reviews June 16, 2008

THE ALCOHOLIC is gonna be hard to top as my favorite original graphic novel of the year. -- Brian K. Vaughan, writer Y: THE LAST MAN

this hilarious, wrenching story gorgeously illustrated in a graphic novel is a flat-out thrill. -- Bret Easton Ellis, author LESS THAN ZERO, AMERICAN PSYCHO

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