The 'Last Escape' received its first review in The Bangkok Post. I felt delighted that they mentioned my book, but I also think that they over-emphasized my criticisms of AA. I have great respect for the AA program.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/Realtime/08Feb2008_real011.php
BOOK REVIEW
Hope for lushes
Last Escape, by Paul Garrigan, 196 pp, 2008 Bangkok Book, paperback, Available at Asia Books and leading book stores, 395 baht
BERNARD TRINK
Covering the nitery entertainment scene for decades, I've seen more elbow-benders than I can count. That I'm not one of them is because I refused to accept the false bonhomie induced by suds and firewater. While not a teetotaler, much less an advocate of Prohibition, I've witnessed the deleterious effect of alcohol ("Come on, one more for the road!") and imbibe only in great moderation.
People have varied degrees of tolerance to booze, from the man or woman who can drink anyone under the table to the person who gets woozy sniffing a wet bar rag, but in every instance their reflexes are adversely affected. Hence their being tossed into the clink for driving under intoxication or bashing their spouse or taking sleeping pills instead of vitamins.
Celebrities keep going into de-tox clinics by court order, then get off the wagon as soon as the judge's back is turned. Losing jobs, their family, their self-respect, becoming bums on skid row, painful cirrhosis of the liver mark their descent. Can it be reversed at some point? AA, for one, asserts it can. They see alcoholism as a chronic disease, not fault of the sufferer.
Belief in the power of the group and a Christian God are needed to recover, along with the firm resolve to lay off the sauce. Dublin-born male nurse Paul Garrigan, who took to beer at age 11 ("Ireland and its pubs are inseparable."), was a lush by the time he was 15. Quaffing had its advantage, making him one of the big boys, losing his shyness, giving him aspirations to be like his role model Brendan Behan.
The downside is that he felt wasted, had cramps, suffered from blackouts, felt suicidal. He attended AA meetings, but didn't feel spiritually uplifted. Nor did he agree that he was in the grips of a chronic disease. Drinking was a bad habit that needed stopping. Applying for work in Saudi Arabia, a dry country, seemed the obvious solution.
Except that in every community of Westerners there, there was at least one home-made still. The white lightning they produced was over 100 proof. Garrigan literally staggered out of the place and headed for Thailand, having heard of temples treating addicts. His book Last Escape describes his experiences in two: Wat Rampoeng in the north and Wat Thamkrabok, 10 days in each with a break in between.
Meditation and emetics are used, throwing up three times a day. When not detailing the vomiting, Garrigan tells us about the other addicts (also druggies), of both genders, doing the same and the monks teaching the precepts of Buddhism. His body purified, he accepts the philosophy/religion and rides off on his Honda motorcycle to wed his Thai girlfriend and father their child.
The message is that even if you're falling down drunk, there is hope at Wat Thamkrabok as long as you can stand all the puking. This reviewer doesn't know what AA has to say about Wat Thamkrabok. It would be unwise to reject it out of hand. It would be unwise to reject it out of hand. It is proving its worth, though there are recidivists.
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