Title: Choosing Life: One Man’s Journey Through Alcoholism and Depression to Wellness and Self-Discovery
Author: Blue Andrews
Publisher: Luminare Press
ISBN: 978-1643880037
Pages: 230
Genre: Memoir
Reviewed by: Barbara Bamberger Scott

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The trials and deep distresses experienced by author Blue Andrews are presented to provide inspiration and hope to others who might face similar challenges.

Andrews’ emotive memoir is written in phases and flashbacks, stressing his love of sports and the joys of companionship with his high school buddies, while, in the background, troubles brew. His parents have separated, his abusive father’s image looms despite his absence, his mother is doing her best but yields to cancer, and drinking becomes his favorite pastime; what he thinks of as his greatest accomplishment. He can handle alcohol, he can buy it despite being underage, he can drive while intoxicated, he can drink every day with no negative consequences. He recalls those feelings of his power mixed with the power of booze so vividly that readers will feel them with him. But his mother’s passing when Blue was only seventeen, and the earlier accidental death of a close friend, along with the young man’s early success rapidly turning to failure in the post-college professional years will all combine to tell him something he is finally able to accept – finally because something happens that leaves no doubt: he needs help from others, and he must help himself.

The author has developed this debut work for the guidance and benefit of readers, both those who have confronted these same crucial barriers and those who may, through his recollections, recognize and be able to help someone who is going through them. Andrews constructs his story with admirable verve and expertise, showing readers a seemingly blithe, bold, intelligent young man, happily married and well employed, as he gradually falls deeper into a pit of depression and self-destruction. All the episodes in this account have the ring of hard truth, from wild drunken parties and barroom jaunts in strange towns, to the anguish of a teen watching his beloved mother fade from life, to the pride of career successes contrasted with self-hatred when those professional aspirations plummet. The author will emerge on the other side as wiser, more truly settled and competent, with the help of fellow sufferers, the support of a stalwart spouse and family, and with his own determination to survive.

In short, Andrews has devised his personal story well described in the book’s title and subtitle. His work should be noted and utilized by recovery groups and by individuals seeking a map through the tough road out of addiction and mental illness, upwards to sustainable healing.