Sleeping with Dionysus

Library Journal

Porterfield, the author of numerous books on violence and addiction, offers a compilation of creative writing on women's insights into addiction. Drinking, drugs, eating, and compulsive relationships are here seen as ways to unleash goddess energy in a society that does not allow the natural expression of women's sexuality. The personal nature of the fiction and poetry in this book gives voice to experiences that typically elude articulation or are in themselves unspeakable. The characters in the stories are in different stages of addiction or recovery, and most explore the abuse that is the underlying reason for the addiction. Some of these pieces are retrospective, looking back at depression and wrecked lives, while others are set in the throes of the debauch. Not for the weak of heart, or perhaps especially for the weak of heart, this book manages to take the reader to the outermost limits of human pain and recovery. Recommended for all collections.-- Paula N. Arnold, Vermont Coll. Lib., Montpelier