It might give us a peek into the life of an alcoholic, but there are much better books that do so. Knapp goes over, and over, and over, and over what went wrong without elaborating. She glosses over important facts like her subsequent anorexia. Knapp writes really well when it comes to her fictional Life of Alice K. or anything she contributes to magazines and the Boston Phoenix, but, hey, if you want to learn about alcoholism, find a better book. Any one of them would do. Reading this book (I had to for a Psychology Class) was utter torture. Don't put yourself through it.