Life behind the writer.
It’s always intriguing when a popular, accomplished author undertakes a journey down a different path. Susan Juby has done just that by revealing her teenage drinking patterns that led her to alcoholism. Now twenty one years sober, she chronicles her early drinking experiences, fragile recovery and her dedication at this point in her life, to sharing her story with young substance abusers.
As a thirteen year old, she was ‘catastrophically unpopular’ according to her own definition when interviewed by Sheryl MacKay’ on CBC’s radio programme, North by Northwest. Combined with shyness and a feeling that she didn’t fit in, alcohol became Ms. Juby’s vehicle for obliteration.
As she states in her book published by Viking Canada (2010):
“We passed the bottle between us until it was gone. I’ve always wondered how other people experience alcohol, how their bodies interact with it, and how they feel after a few drinks. I’ll tell you how I felt. Like I’d just been cast in the next John Hughes movie as the quirky but adorable female lead, who had coincidentally just been accepted to Harvard on a full scholarship and had recently won a gold medal in a widly popular sport. I felt lucky. Invincible. Powerful. A few drinks drowned all the fear and anxiety that rang constantly in my ears and blurred my vision. A few drinks turned me so outlandishly confident, exurbant even, that I had to share the excellence that was me.”
Ms. Juby writes in an honest and humourous style, just as candid as her novels geared to young adults. At one point she suggests that she could have called her book, ‘Drinky pants’.
At the end of this memoir, Ms. Juby takes the opportunity to share stories of addiction and recovery. She focuses on interviews with young people who are now embracing a sober culture. These profiles are engaging and stripped to the core revelations of men and women who are taking life ‘one day at a time’.
Thanks Ms. Juby for sharing your story. As you said at the beginning of your book – ‘I remember enough’.
I can’t wait to read this, Jodie. You’ve made it sound both real and engaging, which often don’t easily co-exist in memoirs.
Good for Susan Juby for sharing her true tale in a way that can, I hope, help others battle their own demons.