Name: The Trip to Echo Spring
Rating: 3.3125 (8 reviews)
ISBN: 9781847677945

Olivia Laing

Laing examines the link between creativity and alcohol through the work and lives of six of America's finest writers.

Why Writers Drink

The Trip to Echo Spring

A New York Times Notable Book of 2014 A Time Magazine Notable Book of 2014 Olivia Laing's widely acclaimed account of how writers in the grip of alcoholism created some of the greatest works of American literature In The Trip to Echo Spring, Olivia Laing takes a journey across America, examining the links between creativity and alcohol in the work and lives of six extraordinary men: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, John Cheever, and Raymond Carver. Captivating and highly original, The Trip to Echo Spring strips away the myth of the alcoholic writer to reveal the terrible price creativity can exert.

On Writers and Drinking

Laing is one of my new favorite authors, because she shows you characters, not just dry people that are boring. Her specific focus on queer characters is really great as well. In this book her cast is Tennessee Williams, F Scott Fitzgerald, John Cheever, Hemingway, John Berryman, and Raymond Carver. She scratches the surface of their writing, their relationships, and their use of alcohol. 

The book will make you never want to drink a drop again in your life. Absolutely horrifying and at the same time as you look in you want to read their books and understand better. I want to reread what I've read of Tennessee Williams and have newly discovered Cheever whom I had not heard of before and his works look particularly interesting. 

The queer undertones that underscored some of these characters is remarkable and worth understanding how their lives and events in childhood and beyond contributed to their addictions. 

At one point Laing also explains how alcohol also had a much stronger place before its addictive qualities were known. How easily alcoholics can brush aside their behavior and hide so much of their choice. 

I'll take a star because at some points the book feels disjointed, but I'm always looking forward for Laing's real world cast and how she manages to shine the spotlight on their lives to show us real human beings. 

BC Hark

Laing is one of my new favorite authors, because she shows you characters, not just dry people that are boring. Her specific focus on queer characters is really great as well. In this book her cast is Tennessee Williams, F Scott Fitzgerald, John Cheever, Hemingway, John Berryman, and Raymond Carver. She scratches the surface of their writing, their relationships, and their use of alcohol. 

The book will make you never want to drink a drop again in your life. Absolutely horrifying and at the same time as you look in you want to read their books and understand better. I want to reread what I've read of Tennessee Williams and have newly discovered Cheever whom I had not heard of before and his works look particularly interesting. 

The queer undertones that underscored some of these characters is remarkable and worth understanding how their lives and events in childhood and beyond contributed to their addictions. 

At one point Laing also explains how alcohol also had a much stronger place before its addictive qualities were known. How easily alcoholics can brush aside their behavior and hide so much of their choice. 

I'll take a star because at some points the book feels disjointed, but I'm always looking forward for Laing's real world cast and how she manages to shine the spotlight on their lives to show us real human beings. 

heleen de boever

Not sure if the blend of literary analysis, travelogue, medical facts and (auto)biography notes is always so successful, yet this is still an enjoyable and informative read that taught me something about some writers & their work I otherwise don't know much about. Bit disappointed (/bored) it was so male- and America-centric, although I appreciate the unhealthy contribution these authors (specifically Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Williams) made to the romantic notion of the tormented, alcoholic artist. Laing is at her best when she turns her pen to the poignant, acute and pragmatic dismantling of exactly this notion.

The Trip to Echo Spring Why Writers Drink

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