Bottle Talk

Heather Doody teaches in the English Department of Sir Wilfred Grenfell
College at the Memorial University of Newfoundland.

In this collection of short monologues, Rivard explores alcoholism with
an approach that ranges from humorous to brutally frank. The voices we
hear in Bottle Talk are male and female, young and old, drunk and sober,
and always convincing. This is largely due to Rivard’s ability to vary
his style from tight and poetic to sloppy and colloquial in a way that
makes each persona distinct and believable. Bottle Talk is an excellent
display of Rivard’s talent as a writer. It is dynamic and sincere and,
although it is connected by a common thread of alcoholism, the ugly
truths that Rivard forces us to view with eyes wide open are not just
those of alcoholism, but the basic truths of humanity and life itself.