Faith, Hope and Sobriety

P.J. Kemp was a journalist living in Brigham, Quebec.

Faith, Hope and Sobriety is the autobiography of a reformed alcoholic. “John” tells a painful yet absorbing account of his early years, focussing primarily on the damage done to his will and self-esteem by a strict and harsh Catholic upbringing.

Unfortunately, a little less than half-way through the book, it turns into a tirade against women. “John” makes no attempt to disguise his hatred toward his wife, whose own character disintegrates under the pressure of her husband’s drunkenness and violence, then through the even deadlier corrosion of his attitude of ownership toward her. He believes she is merely a petty, frigid, and vengeful woman, without once entertaining the thought that perhaps she never much enjoyed being considered by the Church and her husband primarily a baby-making machine, rather than as a person to be loved and cherished for herself. Of course, he finds true happiness only when he ditches his increasingly disturbed wife for a more submissive woman.

Faith, Hope and Sobriety could have been a much better book if so much of it hadn’t been an excuse to vent “John’s” male rage at female unwillingness to play prescribed roles. Because of his unrepentant and venomous attitude toward women who won’t do their job of bearing babies on demand, he makes a mockery of the fundamentally decent and sensible Twelve Steps of the Alcoholics Anonymous program, which he credits with keeping him sober. After reading this book, it’s all too easy to decide that the real reason for “John’s” continuing sobriety is spite — not at all a desirable role model.