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“A thoughtful twist on the recovery memoir” (O, The Oprah Magazine) that explains the different ways bestselling author Martha Grimes and her son, Ken Grimes, recognized and overcame their addictions, now with two new chapters—one from each author.
In this introspective and groundbreaking memoir of addiction, mystery writer Martha Grimes and her son, Ken Grimes, present two different, often intersecting points of view. Chapters alternate between Ken’s and Martha's voices and experiences in 12-step program and outpatient clinics.
Written with honesty, humor, a little self-deprecation, and a lot of self-evaluation, Double Double is “an honest, moving, and readable account of the drinking life and the struggle for recovery. This brave and engaging memoir is a gift” (Kirkus Reviews).
- Sales Rank: #641539 in eBooks
- Published on: 2013-06-04
- Released on: 2013-06-04
- Format: Kindle eBook
From Booklist
Fans of best-selling mystery writer Martha Grimes might be shocked to learn that she was a habitual and self-destructive alcoholic for almost 30 years, before seeking help in 1990. Her son, Ken, was also a drinker, beginning at the age of 13 and continuing for more than a decade, until (also in 1990) he, too, began pulling himself out of his addiction. This collaborative memoir, written in mostly alternating chapters, recounts their lives before, during, and after their addictions. Although they are telling very similar stories, there are many differences in the way the authors see their former selves; even their approaches to healing were different (Martha entered a rehab clinic, while Ken did a 12-step program). But one similarity permeates the book: these are two strong, self-aware people who fell into their addictions by accident and were unaware of their growing reliance on alcohol until it was nearly too late to stop, and then each of them found the strength to reverse the pattern. This deserves shelf space alongside other literary alcoholism memoirs including Pete Hamill’s A Drinking Life (1994) and Augusten Burroughs’ Dry (2003). --David Pitt
Review
“Double Double could have been titled Double-Barreled—it hits like a .12 gauge sawed-off at close range. The brutal illumination of a dual descent into alcoholism is also a penetrating insight: the lives of a mother and son run parallel, becoming intertwined only when each found their own, very separate, way out. This is no ‘self-help’ book—it packs the narrative force of a Martha Grimes novel . . . and perfectly illustrates how the finest fiction is created only when its foundational basis is truth.” (Andrew Vachss, New York Times bestselling author of That’s How I Roll and Blackjack )
“Run for the hills! Publishers, editors, writers, wannabe writers, literary hit men—all are ruthlessly skewered in this wonderfully funny novel about the terrifying world of book publishing!” (Ed McBain, New York Times bestselling author of the 87th Precinct series )
“If you thought there were strange, amazing twists and wildly eccentric characters in Martha Grimes’s Richard Jury novels, wait until you see what happens when she takes on the world of publishing. Foul Matter is a sharp, funny, satisfying caper for anyone who has ever wondered what really goes on in this crazy business.” (Robert Parker, New York Times bestselling author of the Spenser series )
About the Author
Bestselling author Martha Grimes is the author of more than thirty books, including twenty-two Richard Jury mysteries. The winner of the 2012 Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Award, Grimes lives in Bethesda, Maryland.
Ken Grimes works in the public relations industry and lives with his wife and children in suburban Maryland.
Most helpful customer reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful.
DOUBLE DOUBLE could offer others a rational trail out of the fog of alcoholism
By Bookreporter
"How much effort would you want to expend on solving a problem that you're told in the end cannot be solved?" This is the dilemma of alcoholism: it is an obstacle that is always in the path. Author Martha Grimes and her son, Ken, have teamed up to provide their sometimes shared, sometimes divergent views on what it means to be an alcoholic. Both are looking backward at the issue, as they are now sober.
In an account in which they trade off chapters in some cases and engage in dialogue in others, the two embarrass themselves and each other: Ken reminding his mother that he first learned how to bartend as a kid at her cocktail parties, and Martha confessing that she never realized, or chose to ignore, the warning signs that her child was becoming an addict. Between the two, there are all the common stories: the lost memories, the lost years, the lies to others and oneself about why one keeps on drinking. Why would one not? Isn't the point of life to be happy and avoid pain? And doesn't booze help you do that?
Martha writes honestly, "Am I glad I stopped? Yes. I only wish the rewards were more obvious." Yes, she still wants to drink, but she won't, because quitting was "a miracle." Ken attributes his success at getting sober to "conscious contact with a power greater than myself." He can tell you how many days and hours he's been sober; for Martha, the attempts were more blurred and she isn't interested in keeping count. But they agree on one very important principle: the only way to deal with alcoholism is to stop drinking. Though she has intellectual quibbles with the 12-step approach, Martha acknowledges that it works because its basis is quitting. Psychotherapy, which she also tried, may tacitly allow people to think they are okay even if they still get drunk sometimes. Conversely, Ken has open adulation for the 12-step program he joined, recalling that "the men I met in the program became the best friends I could ever hope for."
Between the two mildly differing but equally valid viewpoints, one gets some important messages: denial is a huge danger for addicts; addicts need something to take the place of what they crave most; and alcoholics feel worse, much worse, when they quit drinking. Getting back to a semblance of normality, they learn from others about how badly they used to behave; the mental anguish of sobriety is extreme, including anger, fear and pervasive loneliness, negative emotions that booze once "cured." Martha tries to avoid clichés about drinking, including the common perception that it is a "disease," whereas Ken is quite willing to see it as such --- a disease in which the main symptom is "an inability to stop drinking to the point where it causes death."
Written by two highly intelligent people who have an unusual penchant for frank self-examination, DOUBLE DOUBLE could offer others a rational trail out of the fog of alcoholism. Though classified as a memoir, it could also be a manual --- and one suspects that it was written, at least in part, with that in mind.
Reviewed by Barbara Bamberger Scott
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Frank Memoir Filled with Insights
By Sam Sattler
Having one alcoholic in the family is bad enough, but it seldom stops there. Sadly enough, alcoholism is a never-ending problem for many families, one that can devastate them for generations. In Double Double: A Dual Memoir of Alcoholism, popular mystery writer Martha Grimes and her son Ken very frankly share their own struggles to get, and remain, sober.
The pair, in alternate chapters and several "conversations," look both backward and forward in their lives, revisiting the times and events during which they became addicts, their struggles to survive their addictions, the manner in which they finally got themselves sober, what their lives are like today, and what their hopes are for the future. Despite living in the same house during the worst of all of this, Martha and Ken managed to hide their problems from each other, or were so caught up in their individual struggles with addiction, that neither was much aware of what the other was experiencing.
Ken, in particular, appears to have been a master of deception, the rather typical teenager who easily managed to hide his real life from his mother. Martha, on the other hand, made alcohol such a constant part of her everyday life that the lifestyle seemed perfectly normal to her and her son. There was no need for Martha to hide her drinking from Ken because it really did not seem to be all that unusual to either of them.
Despite the similarities in their stories, what are likely to intrigue readers most are the pair's different approaches to attaining and maintaining sobriety. Ken is a true believer in AA's Twelve-Step approach, while Martha seems to have been so put off by the program's more overtly religious aspects that she could not tolerate the meetings. She preferred, instead, the clinical approach but is frank about that approach's limitations and the ease in which some alcoholics manipulate both their therapy and their therapists.
Double Double, despite Martha's assertion that its readers are all likely to be wondering whether they themselves are alcoholics, is filled with revealing insights that nondrinkers and social drinkers will find useful. Certainly, some readers will realize that they are on the brink of similar problems - and others will find that they have already crossed that line. But even nondrinkers who have only experienced alcoholism second-hand via observation of a distant family member or friend will come away from the book with a better understanding of the problem (Martha only reluctantly calls it a disease) than they had going in.
Bottom Line: Double Double is a very readable and honest memoir in which its two authors are not afraid to embarrass themselves and each other. What they have to say about alcoholism is important, and their willingness to expose themselves this way will help others to solve, or even avoid, a similar experience in their own lives.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
"sobriety is a cold hearted game, make no mistake about that."
By Amelia Gremelspacher
Writing a memoir on addiction is a dicey proposition. The rooms (AA meetings) are full of worse stories on the consequences that alcohol exacts. Memoirs are ripe fruit on the ground. Celebrity is represented to the highest A list. This book is still special. Martha does not work AA and her son Ken does. They are both sober from alcohol for years. In an even more difficult task, they have written a book that is balanced and engaging. They are able to address the denial that each of them had towards the use of the other person without anger, but also without blurring the pain of their relationship. The writing is frank, witty, and engaging. Their stories are head on without pathos or self justification. This is really a lovely book about addiction and recovery. I never thought I would use the words addiction and lovely in the same sentence.
They have their differences. Martha believes an alcoholic is made, not born. She believes that she taught herself the ease and normality of drinking as the years went by. Ken believes alcoholics are born, although he also explores the history that greased his fall into addiction. But both agree that they came to feel normal only with alcohol, and that eventually this normalcy just wasn't good enough. The title of the book comes from Macbeth: "Double double toil and trouble, Fire burn and cauldron bubble." The story follows this line of misfortune muliplying through the years of use. Another line is from "Double Indemnity", "Right down the line." The paths of their addictions were going straight to the place of all addictions, down. Given their respective recognitions of their roads, this story is also one of gaining sobriety, and keeping it.
Addicts are not the exceptions to the human race. We are raised to find the answer to our pain elsewhere. Sometimes that works out as a strategy such as career or learning. But drugs and alcohol for some people become the very thing that they had fled to begin with. This book doesn't make a big deal of this home truth, just in passing. I do think it is a home truth, making this book a useful and elegant lesson that I recommend for anyone.
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