We Are the Luckiest
The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life
- 2020 INDIES Winner
- Gold, Self-Help (Adult Nonfiction)
Laura McKowen’s intimate and compelling We Are the Luckiest affirms that those able to move from addiction to sobriety really are the luckiest of all.
For McKowen it was alcohol, but for others it may not be booze or pills. It may be chasing love, sex, perfection, or a thin body. Maybe, McKowen suggests, something inside that once was alive now feels dead. One day, she writes, a haunting inner voice may say, “Listen to me. Say yes to me.” McKowen’s poignant book shares what happened when she finally said “yes” to that voice.
McKowen writes that she never intended to become an alcoholic. Does anyone? Her book describes how, at first, alcohol helped her feel “normal.” She thought it calmed her anxiety, until one day she became aware that it actually made it worse. “I totaled my car,” she writes. “I woke up with more strangers. I put my daughter in danger again.”
Secrets and lies, guilt, shame, and loneliness took their toll on McKowen’s psyche; booze was poisoning her body and changing her brain. Alcohol became like being on a train that would not let her off.
Moving toward sobriety was not easy, which becomes clear through the brutal personal stories shared, but the painful truth is that addiction is too big a problem to be faced alone. A moving account of the ups and downs of Alcoholics Anonymous, what it’s like to go through withdrawal, and the struggle of rescripting life so that what we are addicted to is no longer a part of it, the book is raw, deep, and hopeful.
We Are the Luckiest goes beyond the hell of addiction to address the joys and blessings of the sober life—a life that’s magical, clean, and clear, with nothing to hide.
Reviewed by
Kristine Morris
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
