Drunk Mom: A Memoir

By Jowita Bydlowska

Book Overview

"An intense, complex and disturbing story, bravely and beautifully told. I read Drunk Mom with my jaw on the floor, which doesn't happen to me that often." --Lena Dunham, author of Famesick and Not That Kind of Girl

Three years after giving up drinking, Jowita Bydlowska found herself throwing back a glass of champagne like it was ginger ale. "It's a special occasion," she said to her boyfriend. And indeed it was. It was a party to celebrate the birth of their first child. It also marked Jowita's immediate return to full-blown alcoholism.

Her trips to liquor stores are in-and-out missions. Perhaps she's being paranoid, but she thinks people tend to notice the stroller. Walking home, she stays behind buildings, in alleyways, taking discreet sips from a bottle she's stored in the diaper bag. She knows she's become a villain: a mother who drinks; a mother who endangers her baby. She drinks to forget this. And then the trouble really starts.

With brutal honesty, Jowita Bydlowska takes us through the binges and blackouts; the humiliations and extraordinary risk-taking; the self-deception and less successful attempts to deceive others. She shines a light on the endless hunger of wanting just one more drink, and one more again, while dealing with motherhood, anxiety, depression--and rehab.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385677804
• ISBN13: 9780385677806
• Release Date: April 2013
• Publisher: Doubleday Canada
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A brutal, honest memoir

I loved this book. The author lays out her soul, good and bad for us. Some parts surprised me, some parts were relatable. Truly a fantastic memoir.

Horrible, horrible book.

This is an awful book. I threw it away. A first for me. The only solace is that I bought it used and she made no money from this purchase. The truth of the story is questionable at BEST. I’m order to post I had to give it one star. It rates in the negative.