Lush: A Memoir

by Kerry Cohen Narrated by Allyson Ryan

Overview

"For those of us wrestling with demons-and who isn't?-Lush is a solace as powerful as red wine." -CLAIRE DEDERER, bestselling author of Love and Trouble: A Midlife Reckoning



When Kerry Cohen reached her early forties, she realized she had a drinking problem-just enough to blur the edges of her life that had become a monotony of working, carpooling the kids to school, and everyday distractions. What she also realized was that she wasn't the only one.



Lush is a gripping memoir that examines Kerry's struggles with alcohol, a struggle that a rising number of middle-aged women are facing today, as alcohol dependency among females drastically increases. A wonderfully poignant and relatable follow-up to her bestselling memoir Loose Girl, Lush follows Kerry as she attempts to rediscover the awe in her life, leaving mistakes, regrets, and the bottle behind her.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"An unflinching narrative of one woman’s journey to the bottom of her wine glass, over and over and over. " — The Oregonian

"Unapologetic in that it offers no trite "darkness to light" narrative about alcoholism, Cohen's book instead offers a sharp-eyed look at what it means to be a midlife female unable to cope with either personal demons or the heavy external social pressures placed on women. An intimate and unsparing book of self-reflection. " — Kirkus Reviews

"Raw, intimate and brave, Lush tears apart the usual advice about drinking and addiction (guess what, AA isn’t the only answer), and chronicles Cohen’s journey toward a healing that at first she can only image. Gorgeously written and audaciously intelligent, here is a controversial and compelling look at finding your own way back." — Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Is This Tomorrow and Pictures of You

"Kerry Cohen applies her legendary wit and sagacity to women’s often subtly destructive dance with alcohol. With great vulnerability and dynamic prose, Cohen examines her own descent into the bottle, its ruinous consequences, and her courageous fight to find her footing in her real life again. This is a story you won’t soon forget." — Jillian Lauren, New York Times bestselling memoirist of Some Girls: My Life in a Harem and Everything You Ever Wanted

"Holy mother of wine—finally a woman wrestles the story of what it is really like to be a woman away from what we’ve been told we are supposed to be. Kerry Cohen’s Lush will light you up, crack you up, make you bawl, and most of all, allow you to breathe again. I’m beyond thrilled to read a book where a woman tells the truth without falling into the sap-hole of the sin-and-redemption narrative. There is no sin and redemption. There’s just our lives, and as Cohen reminds us one truth bomb at a time, they are messily gorgeous. Move over Mary Karr." — Lidia Yuknavitch, bestselling author of The Book of Joan and The Misfit’s Manifesto

"I love this book. I am this book. Kerry Cohen has written a memoir that wrestles with the subtleties, the ambiguities, the sheer alluring horrifying real-life mess of mid-life alcohol addiction. For those of us wrestling with demons—and who isn't?—Lush is a solace as powerful as red wine." — Claire Dederer, bestselling author of Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses

"Kerry Cohen has hit on something important that's rarely discussed — how the everyday disappointment of middle-age can lead to abuses one never imagined as a teenager. Her voice bristles with both vulnerability and sass; her observations and analyses are razor-sharp. This is about drinking, but also about the simple anguish of being human. I guzzled Lush in one long gulp." — Karen Karbo, author of The Gospel According to Coco Chanel and How Georgia Became O’Keeffe

Kirkus Reviews

2018-04-11
A therapist and writer reflects on how alcoholism unexpectedly overtook her at midlife.Cohen (Spent: Exposing Our Complicated Relationship with Shopping, 2014, etc.) "didn't fall in love with alcohol early in life." From adolescence onward, her real addiction was romance. Boys were her "salvation" from the pain of feeling unlovable. Only later was she able to admit they were what she used to stay away from relationships or when she got into them, "keep a foot out the door." After Cohen left an unfulfilling first marriage in her late 30s, she flung herself into the dating world by sleeping with a series of men over the next year. The last man, Bob, was one to whom she felt an especially intense attraction. Wine became their aphrodisiac of choice, "lubricat[ing] our conversations and enhanc[ing] our already fiery libidos." When they first got together, the author only drank when she was with him or with their friends. Her drinking worsened after she realized that Bob still felt a deep attachment to his first wife. Despite going to the gym, Cohen began gaining weight; she knew it was the amount of wine she had been drinking. Eventually, her relationship with Bob settled into a predictable cycle of withdrawal and reconnection. Marriage only made the situation worse between them: Eventually Bob took a lover and paraded her in front of Cohen. After the author fell deeply in love with another man who, like Bob, could not detach from a previous relationship, she finally began to work on her intimacy issues and start a moderation management program to lessen her use of alcohol. Unapologetic in that it offers no trite "darkness to light" narrative about alcoholism, Cohen's book instead offers a sharp-eyed look at what it means to be a midlife female unable to cope with either personal demons or the heavy external social pressures placed on women.An intimate and unsparing book of self-reflection.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171244866
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	07/17/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

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