by SE Mathews

Created on: February 17, 2009

Title: The Alcoholic
Author: Jonathan Ames
Artist: Dean Haspiel
Released in US: September 2008
Category: Graphic Novel/Dramedy

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Summary: Jonathan A. (not to be confused with the author *wink wink*) is an alcoholic. At the opening of this graphic novel, he's having a very low moment when he finds himself in a car with a very old, but very amorous woman. The incident causes him to reflect (i.e., "flashback time!") to how he got to where he was sitting in the car with a woman who wants to get into his pants.

We follow Jonathan from the teenage years where he learns to enjoy alcohol for all the wrong reasons (that seem so right at the time) to his painful falling out with his friend Sal to his increasing dependence on alcohol as he strives to become a writer with all its attendant neuroses and deal with life that sees more than its fair share of ups and downs.

Impression: If a reader is looking for a graphic novel about heroes and saving the world, The Alcoholic is not the graphic novel for that reader. The reviews at amazon.com have been mixed at best and with its dark themes of substance abuse and death, it is easy to understand why the reactions run the gamut from "This is AMAZING" to "This sucked."

Be warned: This graphic novel, with its depiction of alcohol and drug abuse and sex scenes (gay and straight), is not for everyone. The depictions are not gratuitous but they are not softened either.

Yet, after reading it more than three times, this graphic novel about an substance abuser/writer as he struggles through his life has become a favorite.

The novel begins in the year 2001, but the story actually kicks off from a scene in the hero's 1980s past as he is hanging out with his best friend as they enter the last years of high school.

Because Jonathan comes of age during a time that is my coming of age , it is possible that I am giving him some slack on his predicament because his story and the time that it spans (1980s to the present) is familiar to me. His early alcoholism and the innocence in which he fell into is rendered in a way that I recognize from people that I knew. His later drug addiction unfolds in a realistic manner. Then there was his confused relationship with his best friend Sal that never quite recovers to either friend's satisfaction.

Finally, there is his poignant relationship with his Aunt Sadie that is vibrant, nurturing, and odd all at the same time.

For all its faults, the reason that I recommend The Alcoholic to friends is

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