
Drunkard
A Hard-Drinking Life
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Jeff Woodman
-
By:
-
Neil Steinberg
About this listen
Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg loved his job, his wife, and his two young sons. But he also loved to drink. Drunkard is an unflinchingly honest account of one man's descent into alcoholism and his ambivalent struggle to embrace sobriety. Sentenced to an outpatient rehab program, Steinberg discovers that twenty-eight days of therapy cannot reverse the toll taken by decades of hard drinking. As Steinberg claws his way through recovery, grieves the loss of the drink, and tries to shore up his faltering marriage, he is confronted by the greatest test he has ever faced, and finds himself in the process. Steinberg's gripping memoir is a frank and often painfully funny account of the stark-yet-common realities of a disease that affects millions.
©2008 Neil Steinberg (P)2014 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Dry
- A Memoir
- By: Augusten Burroughs
- Narrated by: Augusten Burroughs
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the request (well, it wasn't really a request) of his employers, Augusten lands in rehab, where his dreams of group therapy with Robert Downey Jr. are immediately dashed by grim reality of fluorescent lighting and paper hospital slippers. When Augusten is forced to examine himself, he finds himself in the worst trouble of all. Because when his thirty days are up, he has to return to his same drunken Manhattan life - and live it sober. Dry is the story of love, loss, and Starbucks as a Higher Power
-
-
Sobriety with a sense of style....
- By heidi on 09-28-03
-
Glorious Rock Bottom
- By: Bryony Gordon
- Narrated by: Bryony Gordon
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bryony Gordon is a respected journalist, a number one best-selling author and an award-winning mental health campaigner. She is also an alcoholic. In Glorious Rock Bottom Bryony opens up about a toxic 20-year relationship with alcohol and drugs and explains exactly why hitting rock bottom - for her, a traumatic event and the abrupt realisation that she was putting herself in danger, time and again - saved her life.
-
-
absolutely fabulous ⭐
- By pixie on 03-05-23
By: Bryony Gordon
-
Quitter
- A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery
- By: Erica C. Barnett
- Narrated by: Jean Ann Douglass
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A startlingly frank memoir, Quitter documents one woman's struggles with alcoholism and recovery, with essential new insights into addiction and treatment.
-
-
Long Drunkaloug But Well Defined
- By Danielle T on 11-16-20
By: Erica C. Barnett
-
Drinking
- A Love Story
- By: Caroline Knapp
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fifteen million Americans a year are plagued with alcoholism. Five million of them are women. Many of them, like Caroline Knapp, started in their early teens and began to use alcohol as "liquid armor", a way to protect themselves against the difficult realities of life. In this extraordinarily candid and revealing memoir, Knapp offers important insights not only about alcoholism, but about life itself and how we learn to cope with it.
-
-
The Big Picture of Alcohol Dependence
- By Karen K on 07-26-16
By: Caroline Knapp
-
Blackout
- Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget
- By: Sarah Hepola
- Narrated by: Sarah Hepola
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A memoir of unblinking honesty and poignant, laugh-out-loud humor, Blackout is the story of a woman stumbling into a new kind of adventure - the sober life she never wanted. For Sarah Hepola, alcohol was "the gasoline of all adventure". She spent her evenings at cocktail parties and dark bars where she proudly stayed till last call. But there was a price. Publicly, she covered her shame with self-deprecating jokes, and her career flourished, but as the blackouts accumulated, she could no longer avoid a sinking truth.
-
-
Blackout: A Knockout
- By W Perry Hall on 07-17-15
By: Sarah Hepola
-
Between Breaths
- A Memoir of Panic and Addiction
- By: Elizabeth Vargas
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Vargas
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beloved former ABC 20/20 anchor Elizabeth Vargas reveals her alcohol addiction and anxiety disorder in a shockingly honest and emotional memoir. From the moment she uttered the brave and honest words, "I am an alcoholic," to interviewer George Stephanopoulos, Elizabeth Vargas began writing her story, as her experiences were still raw. Now, in Between Breaths, Vargas discusses her accounts of growing up with anxiety—which began suddenly at the age of six when her father served in Vietnam.
-
-
Brave and Beautiful
- By LAFalls on 09-14-16
By: Elizabeth Vargas
-
Dry
- A Memoir
- By: Augusten Burroughs
- Narrated by: Augusten Burroughs
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the request (well, it wasn't really a request) of his employers, Augusten lands in rehab, where his dreams of group therapy with Robert Downey Jr. are immediately dashed by grim reality of fluorescent lighting and paper hospital slippers. When Augusten is forced to examine himself, he finds himself in the worst trouble of all. Because when his thirty days are up, he has to return to his same drunken Manhattan life - and live it sober. Dry is the story of love, loss, and Starbucks as a Higher Power
-
-
Sobriety with a sense of style....
- By heidi on 09-28-03
-
Glorious Rock Bottom
- By: Bryony Gordon
- Narrated by: Bryony Gordon
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bryony Gordon is a respected journalist, a number one best-selling author and an award-winning mental health campaigner. She is also an alcoholic. In Glorious Rock Bottom Bryony opens up about a toxic 20-year relationship with alcohol and drugs and explains exactly why hitting rock bottom - for her, a traumatic event and the abrupt realisation that she was putting herself in danger, time and again - saved her life.
-
-
absolutely fabulous ⭐
- By pixie on 03-05-23
By: Bryony Gordon
-
Quitter
- A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery
- By: Erica C. Barnett
- Narrated by: Jean Ann Douglass
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A startlingly frank memoir, Quitter documents one woman's struggles with alcoholism and recovery, with essential new insights into addiction and treatment.
-
-
Long Drunkaloug But Well Defined
- By Danielle T on 11-16-20
By: Erica C. Barnett
-
Drinking
- A Love Story
- By: Caroline Knapp
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fifteen million Americans a year are plagued with alcoholism. Five million of them are women. Many of them, like Caroline Knapp, started in their early teens and began to use alcohol as "liquid armor", a way to protect themselves against the difficult realities of life. In this extraordinarily candid and revealing memoir, Knapp offers important insights not only about alcoholism, but about life itself and how we learn to cope with it.
-
-
The Big Picture of Alcohol Dependence
- By Karen K on 07-26-16
By: Caroline Knapp
-
Blackout
- Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget
- By: Sarah Hepola
- Narrated by: Sarah Hepola
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A memoir of unblinking honesty and poignant, laugh-out-loud humor, Blackout is the story of a woman stumbling into a new kind of adventure - the sober life she never wanted. For Sarah Hepola, alcohol was "the gasoline of all adventure". She spent her evenings at cocktail parties and dark bars where she proudly stayed till last call. But there was a price. Publicly, she covered her shame with self-deprecating jokes, and her career flourished, but as the blackouts accumulated, she could no longer avoid a sinking truth.
-
-
Blackout: A Knockout
- By W Perry Hall on 07-17-15
By: Sarah Hepola
-
Between Breaths
- A Memoir of Panic and Addiction
- By: Elizabeth Vargas
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Vargas
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beloved former ABC 20/20 anchor Elizabeth Vargas reveals her alcohol addiction and anxiety disorder in a shockingly honest and emotional memoir. From the moment she uttered the brave and honest words, "I am an alcoholic," to interviewer George Stephanopoulos, Elizabeth Vargas began writing her story, as her experiences were still raw. Now, in Between Breaths, Vargas discusses her accounts of growing up with anxiety—which began suddenly at the age of six when her father served in Vietnam.
-
-
Brave and Beautiful
- By LAFalls on 09-14-16
By: Elizabeth Vargas
-
High Achiever
- The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life
- By: Tiffany Jenkins
- Narrated by: Tiffany Jenkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With heart-racing urgency and unflinching honesty, Jenkins takes you inside the grips of addiction and the desperate decisions it breeds. She is a born storyteller who lived an incredible story, from blackmail by an ex-boyfriend to a soul-shattering deal with a drug dealer, and her telling brims with suspense and unexpected wit. But the true surprise is her path to recovery. Tiffany breaks through the stigma and silence to offer hope and inspiration to anyone battling the disease - whether it’s a loved one or themselves.
-
-
I Get it, You Were an Addict
- By Jim Thompson on 10-16-19
By: Tiffany Jenkins
-
The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober
- Discovering a Happy, Healthy, Wealthy Alcohol-Free Life
- By: Catherine Gray
- Narrated by: Catherine Gray
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever sworn off alcohol for January and found yourself drinking by the 7th? Think there's 'no point' in just one drink? Welcome! There are millions of us. This inspirational, aspirational and highly relatable narrative champions the benefits of sobriety with a three-pronged approach combining the author's personal experience, factual reportage and contributions from expert sources and self-help advice for anyone who wants to reduce their alcohol intake or eliminate it completely.
-
-
Best Book on This Subject!
- By Polly on 05-14-20
By: Catherine Gray
-
Stash
- My Life in Hiding
- By: Laura Cathcart Robbins
- Narrated by: Laura Cathcart Robbins
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After years of hiding her addiction from everyone—stockpiling pills in her Louboutins and elaborately scheduling her withdrawals between PTA meetings, baby showers, and tennis matches—Laura Cathcart Robbins is running out of places to hide. She has learned the hard way that even her high-profile marriage and Hollywood lifestyle can’t protect her from the pain she’s keeping bottled up inside. Facing divorce, the possibility of a custody battle, and the insistent voice of internalized racism that nags at her as a Black woman in a white world, Laura wonders just how much more she can take.
-
-
Best Mom/wife alcoholism memoir I’ve read
- By Allison M. Billet on 04-06-23
-
Lit
- A Memoir
- By: Mary Karr
- Narrated by: Mary Karr
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lit follows Mary Karr's descent into the inferno of alcoholism and madness - and her astonishing resurrection. Karr's longing for a solid family seems secure when her marriage to a handsome, Shakespeare-quoting poet produces a son they adore. But she can't outrun her apocalyptic past. She drinks herself into the same numbness that nearly devoured her charismatic but troubled mother, reaching the brink of suicide. A hair-raising stint in "The Mental Marriott" awakens her to the possibility of joy, and leads her to an unlikely faith.
-
-
Finally! One for the "Win" column
- By Kim on 03-22-10
By: Mary Karr
-
Wasted
- An Alcoholic Therapist's Fight for Recovery in a Tragically Flawed Treatment System
- By: Michael Pond, Maureen Palmer
- Narrated by: Michael Pond, Maureen Palmer
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Psychotherapist Michael Pond is no stranger to the devastating consequences of alcoholism. He has helped hundreds of people conquer their addictions, but this knowledge did not prevent his own near-demise. In this riveting memoir, he recounts how he lost his practice, his home, and his family - all because of his drinking.
-
-
Save your credit
- By karen McCann on 04-23-20
By: Michael Pond, and others
-
If We Break
- A Memoir of Marriage, Addiction, and Healing
- By: Kathleen Buhle
- Narrated by: Kathleen Buhle
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For decades, Kathleen Buhle chose to play the role of the good wife, beginning when, as a naïve young woman from a working-class family on the South Side of Chicago, she met the dashing son of a senator in Oregon. Within months, Kathleen found herself pregnant and engaged. Determined to build her family on a foundation of love, Kathleen was convinced her and Hunter’s commitment to each other could overcome any obstacle. But when Hunter’s drinking evolved into dependency, she was forced to learn how irrevocably a marriage can fall apart under the merciless power of addiction.
-
-
A true survivors story
- By Kristin on 06-25-22
By: Kathleen Buhle
-
This Side of Alcohol
- Random Thoughts and Candid Words of Pain, Hope, Humor, Love—and All That Is Possible in Sobriety
- By: Peggi Cooney
- Narrated by: Peggi Cooney
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This Side of Alcohol is borne out of the cathartic journaling I did during the first two years following my break-up with alcohol. It tells the story of what I did to get and stay sober, allowing me to transform my shame, guilt, and anger into self-compassion, self-discovery, and forgiveness—of myself and others. From self-loathing isolation to a joyous community of support and rediscovered intimacy with my family.
-
-
The pure emotion and story telling
- By Samantha hansen on 09-26-24
By: Peggi Cooney
-
My Fair Junkie
- A Memoir of Getting Dirty and Staying Clean
- By: Amy Dresner
- Narrated by: Amy Dresner
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the tradition of Orange Is the New Black and Jerry Stahl's Permanent Midnight, Amy Dresner's My Fair Junkie is an insightful, darkly funny, and shamelessly honest memoir of one woman's battle with all forms of addiction, hitting rock bottom, and forging a path to a life worth living.
-
-
if you don't read this I'll brandish a bread knife
- By Jackie Lange on 03-02-18
By: Amy Dresner
-
Guts
- The Endless Follies and Tiny Triumphs of a Giant Disaster
- By: Kristen Johnston
- Narrated by: Kristen Johnston
- Length: 4 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The two-time Emmy Award-winning actress has written her first book, a surprisingly raw and triumphant memoir that is outrageous, moving, sweet, tragic, and heartbreakingly honest. Guts is a true triumph - a memoir that manages to be as frank and revealing as Augusten Burroughs, yet as hilarious and witty as David Sedaris.
-
-
Whiskey and cigarettes have never sounded so good.
- By John Campbell on 05-14-12
By: Kristen Johnston
-
Strung Out
- One Last Hit and Other Lies That Nearly Killed Me
- By: Erin Khar
- Narrated by: Jayme Mattler
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This deeply personal and illuminating memoir about her 15-year struggle with heroin, Khar sheds profound light on the opioid crisis and gives a voice to the over two million people in America currently battling with this addiction. Growing up in LA, Erin Khar hid behind a picture-perfect childhood filled with excellent grades, a popular group of friends and horseback riding. After first experimenting with her grandmother’s expired painkillers, Khar started using heroin when she was thirteen.
-
-
Surface material
- By blythe mayfield on 03-06-20
By: Erin Khar
-
Smacked
- A Story of White-Collar Ambition, Addiction, and Tragedy
- By: Eilene Zimmerman
- Narrated by: Eilene Zimmerman
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Something was wrong with Peter. Eilene Zimmerman noticed that her ex-husband looked thin, seemed distracted, and was frequently absent from activities with their children. Yet in many ways, Peter seemed to have it all. So begins Smacked, a brilliant and moving memoir of Eilene’s shocking discovery, one that sets her on a journey to find out how a man she knew for nearly 30 years became a drug addict, hiding it so well that neither she nor anyone else in his life suspected what was happening.
-
-
Fantastic and captivating.
- By Julie Vandenheuvel on 03-12-20
By: Eilene Zimmerman
-
Push Off from Here
- Nine Essential Truths to Get You Through Sobriety (and Everything Else)
- By: Laura McKowen
- Narrated by: Laura McKowen
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Push Off from Here, McKowen delves deeply into each of her nine points: what they mean, how they work, and how every person can live them. She addresses topics such as the correlation between trauma and addiction, the importance of radical honesty, letting go of the illusion of control, the value of community, a reminder that healing is a continual process, and that the process is a gift. Whether you’re just starting out or have been sober for decades, McKowen instructs us to be kind to ourselves: Change is messy and progress is rarely linear, but we can always push off from here.
-
-
As a "Quit Lit" connoisseur, this is a new fave!
- By Cheri Howard on 06-24-23
By: Laura McKowen
What listeners say about Drunkard
Highly rated for:
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 04-10-21
An honest story.
A very direct story, no whining,well told. Keeps your attention. Witty and insightful. Excellent narration.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ron Andrews
- 03-27-15
Wonderful Narrator
Amazing story told by an exceptional narrator. The author leads the reader on a wild ride that resonates with this alcoholic
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amanda Naylor
- 10-04-20
Hopeful
Loved it. Honest, helpful, hopeful. k would like to read more of his work
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- yotam
- 07-14-21
very interesting!
a super honest book. funny and lighthearted but also depressing and frustrating at times. i really enjoyed listening and wished it would last
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- JasonB Texas
- 11-22-17
Repetitive and drawn out
I personally know relapse and the cycle of addiction but his story makes its point of loving drinking more than life and family in an overkill way. He’s a fantastic words smith but it could have been a few hours shorter and therefore been better. It became boring and I wondered will he get sober and stay sober or just keep writing about the cycle of relapse and addiction. He did finally but it was too late for me to appreciate it. I was relieved for a resolution and the book to end.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jason
- 05-18-15
Fantastic book
Well written and poignant story of alcoholism. The dreadful disease it is. At times I found myself feeling like Neil was writing from my thoughts.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Interiorbound
- 12-09-16
awesome except
story is relatable. narrator needs to stay away from British accent. makes a good women though.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 01-25-21
Amazing Narrator
Good cautionary tale and a fantastic narrator, I thought it was the author himself!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michanne Brinkman
- 06-23-21
Read the book
I LOVE this memoir. It’s amazing. I read it two summers ago and couldn’t put it down. But, this narrator clearly missed that this should be read like a long monologue. There’s no depth. He’s just reading. This isn’t fiction and shouldn’t be read as such. Buy the book and read it yourself.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- bluejay80
- 01-08-21
Very real
There's not really any attempt here to amuse me and I like that a lot. Neil's story is vivid and conflicted. At times I WANTED him to keep drinking. But then he took me down the path with him and I saw too that his thinking was broken. As someone trying to wrangle my own addiction, there's a lot of wisdom in the hours of this audiobook. Things I'll remember. It's made for some excellent drives. Thank you Neil, and Jeff for a compelling narration.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!