From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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-	'''''The Lost Weekend''''' is [[Charles R. Jackson]]'s first novel, published by [[Farrar & Rinehart]] in 1944. The story of a talented but alcoholic writer was praised for its powerful realism, closely reflecting the author’s own experience of alcoholism, from which he was temporarily cured. It served as the basis for a [[The Lost Weekend (film)|film adaptation by the same name]] in 1945.	+
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-	==Synopsis==	+
-	Set in a rundown neighborhood of [[Manhattan]] in 1936, the novel explores a five-day [[alcoholism|alcoholic]] binge. Don Birnam, a binge drinker mostly of [[Rye whiskey|rye]], fancies himself as a writer. He lapses into foreign phrases and quotes [[Shakespeare]] even while attempting to steal a woman's purse, trying to pawn a typewriter for drinking money, and smashing his face on a banister. That accident gets him checked into an "alcoholic ward." There, a counselor advises Birnam on the nature of alcoholism:	+
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-	<blockquote>	+
-	There isn't any cure, besides just stopping. And how many of them can do that? They don't want to, you see. When they feel bad like this fellow here, they think they want to stop, but they don't, really. They can't bring themselves to admit they're alcoholics, or that liquor's got them licked. They believe they can take it or leave it alone &mdash; so they take it. If they do stop, out of fear or whatever, they go at once into such a state of euphoria and well-being that they become over-confident. They're rid of drink, and feel sure enough of themselves to be able to start again, promising they'll take one, or at the most two, and &mdash; well, then it becomes the same old story over again.	+
-	</blockquote>	+
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-	Perhaps the only thing keeping Birnam from drinking himself to death is his girlfriend Helen, a selfless and incorruptible woman who tolerates his behavior out of love. Helen does, however, upbraid him with the words: "I haven't got time to be neurotic." No sooner has he begun to recover from his "Lost Weekend" than he contemplates killing Helen's maid to get the key to the liquor cabinet.	+
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-	He has a few drinks and crawls into bed wondering, "Why did they make such a fuss?"	+
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-	==Reception and critical analysis==	+
-	The book was a best-seller and received rave reviews. [[Philip Wylie]] wrote in the ''[[The New York Times Book Review|New York Times Book Review]]'' that "Charles Jackson has made the most compelling gift to the literature of addiction since [[Thomas De Quincey|De Quincey]]. His character is a masterpiece of psychological precision." [[Sinclair Lewis]] called it "the only unflinching story of an alcoholic that I have ever read". [[Anthony Slide]], a modern editor, notes the work is obviously semi-autobiographical	+
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-	It is sometimes seen as the seminal addiction memoir in American literature, a precursor to such works as [[Augusten Burroughs]]' ''Dry'' or [[David Carr (journalist)|David Carr]]'s ''[[The Night of the Gun]]''. [[Malcolm Lowry]], who had been working for more than 10 years on the novel that appeared as ''[[Under the Volcano]]'' in 1947, resented Jackson's success with ''The Lost Weekend'', especially Jackson's use of an alcoholic to represent the modern man's condition.	+
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-	The book has also been noted for having homosexual overtones with a strong implication that Don Birnam, just like Charles Jackson, is a closet homosexual.	+
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-	==Film adaptation==	+
-	The book was adapted into a 1945 film directed by [[Billy Wilder]] featuring [[Ray Milland]] as Don Birnam. Although the movie adaptation hews closely to the novel, the novel differed in one respect: Birnam is described in the novel as being tormented by a homosexual incident in college. That is omitted from the film.	+
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-	==See also==	+
-	*[[Alcoholic hallucinosis]]	+
-	{{GFDL}}	+

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1. redirectDavid Carr (journalist)