Nice Recovery, by Susan Juby

Knowing  Susan Juby only as an award-winning author of teen fiction, I was more than a little surprised to hear that she'd written a memoir about her teen alcoholism and subsequent recovery at age 20.  I was intrigued enough to check out her talk at a local literary festival, and was terribly impressed by her sarcastic humour and strength.

Nice Recovery is funny, insightful, and a little grim.   Juby doesn't tell the whole tale of what was happening around her, but respecting the privacy of family and friends,  focuses on her own experiences.  As a former blackout drunk she also acknowledges that her memory is a little unreliable in the details. Nevertheless, she remembers the projectile vomiting, fistfights, and teenaged self-centredness well enough.  This is no self-aggrandizing saga of golden days, and Juby's grounded honesty serves the story well.

My library files this book in both the adult and teen sections, but I'd be selective about which teens I'd recommend it to.  It's a compelling read, but it is aimed at the adult reader.  Juby is looking back on an anxious, self-destructive, and self-loathing time in her life from a very adult perspective that would have been impossible before she entered recovery.