Alcohol fueled Crime Fiction

[ChristopherGMoore]

Alcoholics write books, too.

Sometimes they write crime fiction. Sometimes they write literary works. No matter what form the novel takes, the real dark star is the bottle.

Think of Dr. Strangelove riding the bomb out of the bomb hatch and into oblivion. Substitute a bottle for a bomb and you find a metaphor that unites a number of books in this genre: The drunken hero/anti-hero. Drinking is not just a life style; it form, shapes, distorts the human condition. Like a moth to flame, we can’t take our eyes off the flutter of wings as they close in on the fire. What is not terribly surprising about these books is their semi-autographical nature. Where the drinking takes place the strip joints, bars, nightclubs, and back alleys also transports the reader into the environment where the drinking takes place. Not every writer who creates a drunk for a hero is an alcoholic. Though looking at the record, it would seem that such a writer is rare.

I’ve been reading James Crumley’s Dancing Bear. His private investigator, Milodragovitch or Milo, moves between a snort of coke and gulping down shots of schnapps. He battles his addiction to booze and drugs as he solves crimes. Sometimes a case of drugs falls into his lap and he struggles between the desire to consume the whole lot and selling the cache. Milo also uses the magic dust with women in the books. Crumley captures the utter despair, loneliness and ennui of a private investigator. As one Amazon reviewer put it, this series is beyond noir, and enters a new level where the darkness of the void emits no light. His turf is the Pacific Northwest. Think Montana and Washington States, the back roads, the small towns, petty jealous over women and money.

I've blogged about a number of books that fit into this category: blog: http://www.cgmoore.com/blog/index.asp It is surprising the number that have been made into films.

Has anyone else read Crumley's private eye books?

[Elizabeth Zelvin]

Dan, what makes you think your character is not an alcoholic? As a long-time addiction professional, I'm tempted to volunteer to do an assessment. ;) I've joined this conversation with Chris elsewhere, so I'll just say here that I'm more interested in the drama of recovery than I am in the drama of alcoholism, which--probably because I'm a long-time addiction professional--I find rather predictable. That's not to say some writers don't do it brilliantly. Ken Bruen, for example, makes Jack Taylor a tormented soul while making it perfectly clear (at least to this reader) that he understands the nature of the disease and doesn't glamorize it. I get irritated when a character is obviously alcoholic and it's equally obvious the author doesn't know it. An example springs to mind that's non-mystery and not a novel: Lanford Wilson's play Burn This, in which the hero who's been getting drunk and doing coke throughout the play comes back to the heroine at the end and announces he's been sober for three days. Happily ever after? I don't think so.

[Dan Coleman]

Well, Elizabeth, I see what you're saying, I think. I suppose if one's behavior is influenced on a regular basis by alcohol, negatively or positively (if there is a positive) to either function or escape, then it would be considered alcoholism. Or, maybe, if booze is used as a utility even only on selected occasions. Maybe the same way one describes oneself as a smoker, "but only a couple cigarettes a day." Still a smoker. Especially since there's no downside to not drinking or smoking.
In that respect, we might be able to refer to bridge jumpers, parachutists, motorcyclists, other thrill seekers as having suicidal tendencies, because they need the rush to feel alive(or to feel alive before death), and accept the risks, if only on weekends.
I suppose what you're implying is you don't have to be a fall-down drunk or a "functional" example to be suffering from alcoholism. Yeah, I agree. Have seen it.
My character has gotten to where he's guzzling glasses of ice-chilled wine long before nightfall, even at lunch, even though he's athletic and otherwise a healthy specimen. That was me in my life, until three years ago(except I didn't drink in the middle of the day) when I just stopped for dietary reasons. I was at the point where, whenever I had the first two or three glasses, I'd get hunger cravings and go into the kitchen and eat the paint off the walls, starving slap to death. I've had a total of maybe a couple wine coolers and two or three beers since then. Never have the urge to drink, never feel the pull, but that's the way I quit smoking twenty-six years ago, cold turkey, never looked back.
Maybe I'm living vicariously through my character, or just using my experience to build him. Like I said, half the character is the writer, the other half is what he wishes he were.

[I. J. Parker]

I think I agree with that. Much hard-core alcoholism (or drug abuse) is personality-related. In other words, there are people who never become addicted because they simply don't cross the line, by choice or because they aren't that interested. Wine, especially red wine, has been shown to be beneficial in reasonable amounts. I sometimes think that the idea that drinking is forbidden in this country (shades of the prohibition) fuels the interest in it.
Not at all sure that ice-chilled wine is the best way to alcoholism. I've always associated that with hard liquor and beer. Or possibly with drinking cheap hooch by the gallon. Your character sounds a bit like Byron who used to drink Rhenish (white wine) mixed with water, possibly as an aid to dieting.

[Angela Zeman]

Who hasn't pondered the image of the writer as artist, hunched over his parchment, chewing the quill while pondering which fabulous words to put down for posterity...that guy always seemed to have a glass of absinthe, or JD, or something alcoholic near his knuckles. So romantic.

Karl Largent, a thriller writer I once knew always swore that any agent of his would have to, as part of his duties, keep him supplied with bourbon by the case. I think it was bourbon. I see his books in airports and discount stores once in a while and always wonder if he got his wish.

One day I decided to try it. I needed a sale, and that writer with the absinthe always looked not just successful, but famous in my daydeams! So I poured some white wine into a really expensive glass--a jelly glass might harmfully affect the quality of my words, right? I settled the glass near my computer (not too near, I tend to worry over my keyboard) and let my fingers hover enticingly, ready to type! Something great would emerge, I knew it. I couldn't be more ready. My muse glistened in its glass, in the lamplight. I shivered as I contemplated the liquid glitter. Ready!

What would I write? I took a sip. Yes, so ready!

An hour later, half a bottle later--what would I WRITE? Or, actually, WHEN would I write? Soon. Anytime now. Maybe a touch more wine.

No, no really. Something great inside me yearned to be free, I could feel it! Excuse me while I visit the loo...

I never found that manuscript. I searched and searched the hard drive, but man it must've been saved to some new folder and I forgot its name...

I'm still hunting for the mss I must have written that night. I bet it's GREAT!

However, next time I'm thinking...candles. Yes, candlelight with the wine. All the difference in the world.

[Dan Coleman]

Yes, I.J., personality. I agree. We all have one, and we're either susceptible to excess or we aren't.
I know I can't let a day go by without breaking out in a good sweat from a strenuous workout. It's not an addiction, it's who I am. I was the same way as a child, extremely active. Don't know how to live any other way. It's a built-in survival thing, I believe, an automatic reaction to a threat. It's enjoyable, but if I don't do it, I feel I'll fall into ill health. If I feel my vice getting out of hand, I back away from it. I keep looking for characters in stories to do the same thing, or have healthy lifestyles where a regimen of some kind is part of their routines, but they rarely do. But they're not wrong, either, they're just not me.
Wonder how far from Christopher's subject I can get?
Sorry, Christopher.

[Dan Coleman]

Angela, I believe if a writer, as with Largent, or anyone, has a strategy for a steady supply of booze, he's in big trouble already.