A Drinking Life: A Memoir

“A vivid report of a journey to the edge of self-destruction,” the national bestselling memoir from the acclaimed New York City journalist (New York Times).

As a child during the Depression and World War II, Pete Hamill learned early that drinking was an essential part of being a man, inseparable from the rituals of celebration, mourning, friendship, romance, and religion. Only later did he discover its ability to destroy any writer’s most valuable tools: clarity, consciousness, memory.

In A Drinking Life, Hamill explains how alcohol slowly became a part of his life, and how he ultimately left it behind. Along the way, he summons the mood of an America that is gone forever, with the bittersweet fondness of a lifelong New Yorker.

“Magnificent. A Drinking Life is about growing up and growing old, working and trying to work, within the culture of drink.” —Boston Globe

© 2025 Back Bay Books (Ebook): 9780316054539

Release date

Ebook: 8 April 2025