The ten best books & stories on drinking and booze

Olivia Laing is the author of The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking. Hilary Mantel described it as "one of the best books I've read on the creative uses of adversity."

One of Laing's ten best books and stories on drinking and booze, as shared at The Daily Beast:

Tender is the Nightby F. Scott Fitzgerald

I can think of very few books that choreograph a downward spiral with such elegant and terrifying precision. Dick Diver begins as the graceful, competent king of the Riviera and ends as a washed-up drunk, estranged from everyone he loves. Though it’s denser and more irregular than The Great Gatsby, Tender also contains some of Fitzgerald’s most magical writing and arresting images and scenes.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Tender is the Night is among Joni Rendon and Shannon McKenna Schmidt's top nine works inspired by writers’ love lives.

--Marshal Zeringue