Drinking with Dead Drunks by Elaine Ambrose & A.K. Turner

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Obtained from: Author

Read: November 26, 2012

Essays on drinking with some of the most notorious drunk writers in literary history, including Ernest Hemingway, Dylan Thomas, Tennessee Williams, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hunter S. Thompson, Jack Kerouac, Raymond Chandler, Truman Capote, John Cheever, James Joyce, William Faulkner, Frederick Exley, O. Henry, Charles Bukowski, Jack London and Edgar Allan Poe. This is the second book in the Drinking with Dead Writers Series. Authors Elaine Ambrose and AK Turner embark on a fictional romp through literary history, indulging in excessive libations along the way.

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Edgar's True Love by Alex Eckman-Lawn

Used with Permission of the Artist

The second round is on me! Okay, not really. Elaine Ambrose and AK Turner have once again picked up the tab, inviting readers to spend happy hour with some of the most talented alcoholics ever published in Drinking With Dead Drunks, book two of the Drinking With Dead Writers series.

I absolutely loved Drinking With Dead Women Writers and was thrilled when I learned the authors were going to release a sequel. Like the first book, Drinking With Dead Drunks is a collection of humorous mock interviews with famous writers, but where our first pub crawl was dedicated to the ladies, our second belongs strictly to the men.

What bibliophile wouldn't jump and the chance to meet with Tennessee Williams at the Carousel Bar or sit in Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon with Jack London? Admit it, you want to watch The Raven with Edgar Allan Poe, question Hemingway about how his war time experiences inspired A Farewell to Arms, and even the suggestion of discussing Holly Golightly with Truman Capote thrills you from head to toe. 

My favorite aspect of these books is that Ambrose and Turner supplied very little of the dialogue for their interviewees. Instead they lifted lines from their works or personal quotes, essentially characterizing each subject through his own words. It is a fantastically creative approach that when combined with Ambrose and Turner's keen sense of humor creates a wonderfully witty and unique fiction that can't fail to entertain. 

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“Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.” 

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