| Beachglass Contributor(s): Blackburn, Wendy (Author) |
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ISBN: 0312351593 ISBN-13: 9780312351595 Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL OUR PRICE: $20.69 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: June 2007 Annotation: Self-deprecating and bitingly smart, Delia, a recovering addict, forges her own brand of hard won wisdom on her journey in sobriety. When Delia entered treatment for drug and alcohol addiction at seventeen, her life changed forever. She believed she could make it through anything without backsliding--until she receives a phone call from her best friend, Timothy, whom she met in rehab. Fulfilling a pact they made a decade earlier, she leaves her husband and child in Seattle to care for him as he dies. While in Los Angeles, Delia sorts through her memories--and as her past catches up with her present, she sees she has not merely survived her losses and mistakes, but has been made better because of them. " A tender, terrifying chronicle of the wages of modern-day sin and the hope of the world to come. . . . A story that rings with grief and triumph." --Jacquelyn Mitchard, author, "The Deep End of the Ocean" and "Still Summer" " Delicately portraying friendship and loss, temptation and redemption, the turmoil of addiction and the hard-won gifts of recovery," Beachglass" is highly recommended for every reader--and required reading for all those in recovery." -- Martha O'Connor, author of" The Bitch Posse" " A vibrant, engaging, and utterly honest book...this is a novel which seems to be about recovery but is really about so much more: friendship, chosen families, and the transformative power of human love." -- Nicole Mones, author of "Lost in Translation" " Set in a glittering, gritty, late-80s Los Angeles, "Beachglass" is a beautifully written novel, which, at its heart, is about friendship . . . Though this story made me weep, it helped me see-- through my tears-- just how messy and miraculous the human condition can be." - Rebecca Agiewich, author of "BreakupBabe" WENDY BLACKBURN has been a chemical dependency counselor since 1992. She lives with her family in a small town outside of Seattle, Washington. This is her first novel. Please visit www.wendyblackburn.com |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Literary - Fiction | Psychological - Fiction | Coming Of Age |
| Dewey: FIC |
| Physical Information: 1" H x 5.5" W x 8.5" (0.95 lbs) 336 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Southern California - Topical - Death/Dying - Topical - Friendship - Cultural Region - Western U.S. - Cultural Region - West Coast - Geographic Orientation - California |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: When Delia entered treatment for drug and alcohol addiction at age seventeen, her life changed completely: she immersed herself in AA, began to heal old family wounds, and developed a whole new outlook on herself, on spirituality, on relationships. Out of the rubble, she built a life for herself that any recovering woman would be proud of: a loving husband, a beautiful daughter, her own brand of hard-won wisdom. But her long-term sobriety is put to the test when she receives a phone call from her gay best friend, Timothy. Fulfilling a pact they made a decade prior, Delia tears herself away from her new life in Seattle and rushes home to Los Angeles, to Timothy's bedside, facing the one thing she fears her sobriety cannot survive--losing him. Back in LA, Delia begins to encounter familiar people, places, and temptations...a barrage of memories that makes her stop and sort through her past, looking for the courage she knows she needs now more than ever. As her past catches up with her present, she sees that she has not merely survived her losses and mistakes, but has been made stronger because of them. This understanding comes to her in full as she holds a piece of beachglass in her hand and realizes that it is its scuffs and scrapes that give it its quiet splendor, its imperfections that give it its beauty and individuality, and that it is from being tossed and tumbled that it no longer shatters--and she knows the same goes for her too. Set against a backdrop of West Hollywood in the late 1980s, populated by a drag queen and a stripper, beautiful boys and artists, and told by a narrator with equal doses of self-deprecating humor, old-soul awareness, fallibility, and brutalhonesty, "Beachglass "is a gritty and uplifting story of recovery, a journey that presents a fresh look into the world of AA" "and offers a convincing rendering of the constant struggle to go into recovery and stay there--no matter what. In this stunning debut novel, Wendy Blackburn writes of the transformative power of love--for others and oneself--and about friendship, about forgiveness, about redemption. |
Contributor Bio(s): Blackburn, Wendy: - WENDY BLACKBURN has been a chemical dependency counselor since 1992. She lives with her family in a small town outside of Seattle, Washington. Beachglass is her first novel. |