UNRAVELED

Laura Cook Boldt and Tom H. Boldt’s joint memoir recounts their history dealing with alcoholism and drug abuse.

In alternating, first-person accounts, a mother and son share their personal struggles with addiction as well as their relationship with each other. Laura tells of driving drunk on Halloween in 2008, which led to a single-car accident;as a result, she realized that she had a problem and became determined to get treatment and get sober. Laura’s difficulties with sobriety would allow her to relate to Tom’s pain and frustration, although his substance abuse problems began years before, when he was only 12 years old. He had a traumatic time in a Catholic prep school; he was severely bullied by classmates, which led his parents to transfer him to a public school, where his peers were more welcoming but where his proclivity for drinking and drugging started to take over his life. Although Tom was an incredible snowboarder and, later, a determined tennis player, his interests were eclipsed by his substance abuse. At 16, he used cocaine for the first time, and things quickly spiraled out of control. Later, Tom was addicted to morphine, and he stole from his family to support his drug habit. It was soon clear to Laura and her husband that Tom desperately needed to go into rehab before it was too late. The back-and-forth structure of the narration is engaging; ultimately, though, Laura’s personal trials come off as secondary to Tom’s story of struggle. Indeed, after she shares her own problems with alcoholism, her subsequent narration simply serves to supplement Tom’s entries; readers may wonder, after a certain point, what Laura’s additions provide to the book. Yet, when she writes that addiction “is a disease and demise without borders,” it’s a crushing sentiment that neatly sums up the entire work. Tom also shares the invaluable lesson that “it’s okay to ask for help. You do that, and you never have to go it alone.”

An informative remembrance of addiction and recovery with an intriguing but uneven structure.