"You are a human. Not an addict, or an alcoholic, or any of the worst things you've ever done. Addiction is just an experience, one of many that can shape a life. It's not unique. It's not a flaw. It's not even that interesting."
This is the compassionate, forgiving message that writer and sobriety guru Laura McKowen wants to share with the 21 million people in the U.S. who struggle with substance addiction. But don't be misled by her statement that addiction isn't "even that interesting." Her story--that of a devoted mother and successful professional who hid, and then overcame, a debilitating and destructive alcohol addiction--is certainly interesting, just as many stories of addiction are interesting (as the robust "recovery memoir" genre testifies). What she means is that addiction is so much less interesting than life without it.
For McKowen, getting and staying sober led to a creative, spiritual and professional transformation. With hard-earned honesty and clarity--things that were once far out of her reach--she uses her story as a catalyst to guide her readers to their own transformation, whether "their thing," as she puts it, is alcohol, drugs or some other toxic force in their lives.
We Are the Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life isn't a recovery memoir, exactly, though it is certainly in conversation with the genre's many classics. At the same time, calling it a "self-help" book undersells its grace, lyricism and narrative complexity. It also shouldn't be limited to readers who are confronting substance abuse; it holds a good deal of "surprising magic" for anyone seeking to live a more honest, vivid life. --Hannah Calkins, writer and editor in Indianapolis