By Megan Thomas
The latest contribution to the South African literary scene by Pamela Power is her memoir about taking back control of her relationship with alcohol. While Pam hasn’t given up alcohol altogether, My Year of Not Getting Sh*tfaced tracks her journey from giving up alcohol entirely (after some of the worst hangxiety I’ve ever heard about), to a place where she can enjoy it in moderation.
Importantly, and this is something Pam clarifies early on, this memoir is not meant to suggest that moderation can be found by alcoholics. Instead, it’s Pam’s personal experience of realising that her unhealthy dependence on alcohol was more a preoccupation with binge drinking, which going sober helped her to identify and curb.
Written in a diary format which tracks Pam’s time completely sober to her transition from teetotal to moderate, sociable consumption, the book is about a lot more than just her year of not getting shitfaced. If anything, I think it’s more about the life in between than the physical days spent sober, even if they are what lends the book structure.
There’s a lot to unpack, like where her relationship with alcohol began as an Irish Catholic child in South Africa, to the financial chaos that Covid exacerbated for so many people, and in doing so, Pam highlights some real universal truths.
I’m sure I’m not the only one whose relationship with indulgence was pushed to the maximum during the pandemic, and I think there is a lot of wisdom and self-reflection to be found between book ends. Not to mention, a lot of bravery: it’s all well and good reading and relating to what Pam has experienced, but it’s a different kettle of fish laying your own life bare like this.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Pam without self-deprecation, laugh out loud commentary, and outrageous statements spread liberally throughout.
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