Orangutan: A Memoir

Few people who have been slave to an addiction as vicious, as destructive, and as unrelenting as Colin Broderick's have lived to tell their tale. Colin Broderick read at Women Who Write-an artists' salon in LA. He has written a previous memoir, Orangutan.
Table of contents

That fire has kept me alive through two unpublished novels, two plays, a screenplay, reams of poetry, and a nice folder of short stories over the years.

'That's That': A Memoir Of Loving And Leaving Northern Ireland

But the option to quit was never viable for me. The noise in my head demands articulation. I obey, or it destroys me. I drank to quiet the noise. I write now for the same reason. Drink is one of the great levellers of fiction writers. How did you actually manage to write while you were on the jar? Or did you just pretend? That romantic image of the half pint of whiskey next to me on my writing table while I toiled almost killed me over the years. Personally I never wrote a coherent sentence when I was drunk. It took me a long time to accept that writing is basically hard, lonely work.

It was easy to feel inspired when I was drinking. Once in a while, usually after about two or three bottles of wine, I was so inspired that I was convinced that I was just going to rattle off the next great American novel. There might be twenty pages or so of enthusiastic, unintelligible scrawl to magnify my sense of utter hopelessness.


  • SIMILAR BOOKS SUGGESTED BY OUR CRITICS:!
  • Questions?!
  • KIRKUS REVIEW.
  • Item Preview?
  • Effective Use of Teams for IT Audits (Standard for Auditing Computer Applications);

I destroyed a lot of nice notebooks like that over the years. I never woke up with a hangover and a masterpiece in my hand. I think that whole idea of the drunk writer is a very dangerous myth. Then they got drunk to celebrate. A story is a story, full stop. What would you say to the skeptics who say that this story is too crazy to believe? So he made a mistake; leave him alone. I totally agree, Colum. In the bars where I drank, there were characters who would tell the same story over and over for years.

The art of storytelling started around turf fires years ago, way before there were laptops and recording devices to take the magic out of it.

Tell me a boring story you heard when you were ten. You worked in the Irish construction scene in New York for twenty years while writing. How was that for you, on the job? I would always tell them to bring it back and hang it on a sky hook. The Irish construction scene in New York is not a job you need a hard hat for. What you really need is a full suit of body armor and a spare liver stored in your cooler.

Those guys are the best craftsmen there are. We get our voice from the voices of others. So, who would you say gave you your voice? A few parts of the book are a bit disgusting but hey, we have been warned! Just when we think Colin has hit the lowest of low bottoms, he manages to sink even lower. Not for the weak of stomach. Don't expect apologies or justifications. This is a book of truth. Although there are many tales of hopeless alcoholism, there are a few silver linings, too.

I highly recommend this book as a funny, entertaining read, and also for anyone interested in what really goes on in the mind of an addict. Sep 29, Natalie rated it it was amazing.

Orangutan: A Memoir by Colin Broderick

I'm gutted at how raw and brutally beautiful this memoir is. The last chapter is heart-wrenching. Apr 15, Odessa rated it liked it Shelves: I took this title up when it was published a decade ago, but put it down before finishing the first chapter and never went back, until this time. One of the reasons I gave another try was because the author wrote another memoir That's that a few years ago and I wanted to treat the books as the Irish diaspora material to look into in depth.

See a Problem?

The particular subject of growing up in Northern Ireland Broderick recounts still interests me but more importantly, I recalled the author's approach to recov I took this title up when it was published a decade ago, but put it down before finishing the first chapter and never went back, until this time. The particular subject of growing up in Northern Ireland Broderick recounts still interests me but more importantly, I recalled the author's approach to recovery in this book--as far as I had heard him talk on the radio that cued me to pick the book up then in the first place-- still seemed unique or counter intuitive among the addiction and recovery books that mostly involved 'white middle class that is equipped with luxury of going to rehab facilities.

Other than that, I have to admit that I was faced with the same predicament and what put me out in the initial attempt still persisted. I struggled to read on and was put out repeatedly. Despite the fanfare as the opposite, the account's undertone was as self-pity, swagger, sentimentality or glorification of days of being wild and was pretty much like that throughout the book. Reminiscent of A Million Little Pieces, which was brought up with the issue of ethics of the addiction recovery genre and capitalizing it, I could not get over the very trouble that made me to ditch this a decade ago: It is not to say that these two different books are telling an identical story or Orangutan was imitating A Million..

But it still is undeniable that the publication of Orangutan was surely treading on the path that had been already forged by the infamous bestseller and there seemed little introspection or criticism into the issue of the formulated memoirs genres and selling new books by jumping on the wagon.

Or whose drugs of choice was more potent than the other's. Even if this type of debate sounds already outdated as of , it might be a question worthwhile to set to yourself according to how you came across a book as this. Jun 04, Melissa rated it it was amazing Shelves: I couldn't put this book down.

Oct 27, Ismail Elshareef rated it liked it Shelves: Colin Broderick starts his memoir with a warning. But it's my story and I'm not going to apologize for it.

It is ugly and indulgent, but a fascinating and well-written ugly and indulgent story. The fact that Colin is still alive is beyond me. He actually touches upon that in the book: I had been through car accidents, I had been stabbed and hospitalized and almost dr Colin Broderick starts his memoir with a warning. I had been through car accidents, I had been stabbed and hospitalized and almost drowned, and now I had fallen off a roof and I was alive God was telling me that I should drink. There are some genius moments in the book, like the sage advice Colin gives aspiring writers.

You must be willing to sacrifice your darlings. Rip it apart, throw some of it out--throw it all out if you have to--and rewrite. He definitely has what it takes to get a book like this into my and your hands. Colin's story sheds light on alcoholism and Irishmen, which is evidently endemic. Colin admits that "the possibility of not drinking at all was out of the question. My fellow country men would never forgive me. Aside from his alcohol and cocaine addictions, Colin actually reminded me a lot of myself, which made his story that much more devastating.

He's a bibliophile and a writer and a sensitive SOB. He's a great guy if you're lucky enough to catch him sober. This was a fast read and written really well. I wonder, however, if Colin has another great book in him or if this is it. Whatever you think of Colin the person, the addict or the flake, you gotta hand it to him as a great writer. May 29, Sarah rated it really liked it. This was a very powerful memoir, and it's interesting that there were times I despised the main character for the way he messed up his life and treated others and other times when I was really rooting him on to stay sober.

I've never read a book before that captures addiction in such a way — raw, uncensored, and ugly at times, but riveting nonetheless.

Orangutan: A Memoir

I want to look up Colin Broderick on the Internet now and see if he stayed sober. I really hope he did. But I wouldn't be getting my hopes up. It This was a very powerful memoir, and it's interesting that there were times I despised the main character for the way he messed up his life and treated others and other times when I was really rooting him on to stay sober.

It seemed like he always relapsed just as he was doing well — I can only hope that now that he's married for the 3rd time and has a daughter he will find the strength not to pick up again. I found it interesting how Broderick was able to explain what it was like being an Irish person in New York, and the pressure to drink as part of the Irish American culture. His life had so many up and downs, and he's only a little bit older than I am or at least was at the time this was written, which I see was back in I'm going to have to Google him now to see if he wrote anything else.

Anyway, this book is definitely worth reading because it gives you an inside look at what it's like to be an alcoholic. It's amazing how much someone can mess up their life Oct 11, Kasandra rated it liked it. An entertaining memoir by a former Irish drunk still Irish, hopefully not still a raging drunk. Funny and fast-paced, it's amazing how much Broderick still supposedly remembers, after spending years trying to kill himself with booze and drugs and waking up in hospitals.

For a guy who blacked out an awful lot, he seems to have a pretty decent memory. He must have quite a gift of gab or a lot of charm to have hurt and upset and disappointed as many people as it sounds like he did, and still find An entertaining memoir by a former Irish drunk still Irish, hopefully not still a raging drunk. He must have quite a gift of gab or a lot of charm to have hurt and upset and disappointed as many people as it sounds like he did, and still find work, love, and friendship.

I was a bit disappointed that he says he took Billy Collins' poetry classes for 3 years and yet has nothing much to say about that except that Collins says that much of the work of poetry is rewriting and editing. And Broderick meets Colum McCann, who apparently also didn't offer much advice for a fledgling writer except to tell him that his then-current manuscript wouldn't be the one he first published. Broderick clearly has the ability to make influential friends who will write book blurbs for him. It'd be interesting to see what he can do with fiction or poetry instead.

Jun 01, Neil Mudde rated it really liked it. Where ever Colin is, I hope he is well, that he was able to perform jobs while drunk out of his mind is mind boggling. His comments about AA are interesting from a person who was a member for 8 years. Colin must have an amazing constitution to have swallowe Where ever Colin is, I hope he is well, that he was able to perform jobs while drunk out of his mind is mind boggling.

Colin must have an amazing constitution to have swallowed all those poisons. I was deeply touched by his knowledge that continuing the road he was on would lead to death, yet he could not "not use" he was well aware of the results of another bender. Just finished reading the book a few hours ago,although there were a few times that I threw it aside, as "enough already" but had to finish the story hoping for a good ending. Addiction to whatever is devastating, more power to those who are willing to deal with it, or accept it for what it is, and hopefully not become victimized by it,we are able to learn so much more about this today, and its possible various treatments.

Looking forward to another book by Colin, hopefully with the setting in the "here and now" Dec 29, Margaret rated it liked it. There was no place at school or at home where that curiosity was really being met. I probably came across as being arrogant or a smart-aleck or whatever, and because of that I got punished. And that just sort of compounded my sense of alienation growing up in Northern Ireland, and I didn't have anywhere to go and say, 'Hey, I'm confused' — and really that silence of not being able to speak. So when I talk about silence, I talk sort of the silence of truth.

I think part of our heritage of being this nation of being incredibly great storytellers, or being funny, or being very entertaining, comes from this sort of need to create a facade to sort of stand behind. And it's very difficult — people say that Freud said that the Irish were impervious to psychoanalysis — but I think it sort of gets at the — Irish people are so hidden in many ways that I think when I talk about silence I talk about basically not being truthful emotionally.

And two years in, I realized — and I thought it was only going to take me two years — but two years in I realized it's not just my story that I'm telling. And I think the book itself, it's about personal narrative, it's the story of a family, it's the story of a son and a mother, but it's also a story of Northern Ireland. Read an excerpt of That's That. Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player.