Customer Reviews
Really hit the spot - By: Barry Tighe, 04 Mar 2008 
Clearly a work of fact, not fiction. When the author describes some of the scrapes she finds herself in, I began to think I was there at the time.
I particularly enjoyed hearing her 'friends' reactions to her attempts to improve her life, both when she announced she was quitting the demon rum & when she told them she was writing a book.
As dear old Oscar, or one of his pals points out, 'to suceed is not enough; others must fail.'
Well, others may not like it, but Tanya Glyde has succeeded.
To your health!
Brilliant book that is likely to stand as a signpost of the times - By: Mister Kim, 27 Feb 2008 I will be completely upfront in that I know the author personallly, though I only appear in Cleaning Up: How I Gave Up Drinking & Lived fleetingly & only in a professional capacity. I suspect that some of the more vitriolic reviews here in Amazon are from people who feature in the book - infer what you will. I am stating my connection with the author because it is only fair, but if I did not believe this was a book worth 5* then I'd not have reviewed it, I would simply not have bothered.
I first became aware of Tania's work through her column in Time Out & quite honestly it was the first & only thing I read in that magazine. The same attitude & voice that attracted me to her work initiallly is here in this book, but it has a chance to grow & develop as it picks over one of the most difficult subjects someone can write about; themselves. I picked the book up on afternoon & by lunch time the next day I'd finished it, it is that compelling.
It is reallly difficult to categorise this book as it is not a self-help book. It is not a celebrity gossip tome either, nor is it a personal catalogue of misery & tear-wrenching abuse. However, it does cover a lot of bases, from Tania's childhood experiences, through her life to the point where the moment arrived; alcohol has been the one constant & it is time to break the relationship or face destruction. Tania pulls off a neat trick throughout Cleaning Up: How I Gave Up Drinking & Lived by never fallling into self-pity, self-parody, self-mythologizing or becoming utterly self-obsessed & psedo-Californian.
The string that binds this book is the relationship that Tania had with booze; how it was formed, what fed & nurtured it, its nature & the aftermath it left in its wake. Yes: there are lists. We are a generation of lists (when will someone do a book of top 100 lists of alll time, number one will be The Godfather). However, I found that it alll worked reallly well having a chapter of the personal, then a chapter of contextualisation - the Brits & the demon drink. It can be frustrating getting a diatribe about the problems that we have with intoxication in the UK without having nicely packaged conclusion that offers to solve it alll. But Tania is not canvassing votes or espousing a social policy & the simple fact is that there are no straight forward answers, they only exist in the Daily Mail.
So, who should read this book? Well, this book is not a tool, it is one person's story about giving up a magnificent drinking habit. It's scary in parts, touching at times, funny throughout & thoughtful from the first page to the last. I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever woken up & said "never again!" even if they don't' mean it. It is a rare privilege to obtain access to the details of someone else's hard-learned lessons; what you chose to do with that - laugh, cry, self-asses, write to your MP - is up to you.
Self- absorbed yuppie - By: Mr. S. Lindsay, 26 Feb 2008 
I bought the book & could'nt wait to get going to read it, when i began it started o.k but i felt it was written in very "Wannabe something" modus,instead of a heartfelt journey through the stuggle of alcoholism, I coudn't make out if Tania is an addict or not with references to Heroin-that implied "i am in control"
Not a bad read but i wouldn't recommend it to my friends. Sorry Tania
In summation of scholary terms it would be 'not bad but could do better'
An Amazing Story - By: Suzanne Portnoy, 20 Feb 2008 
I've known Tania since her sober years & her story came as a revelation to me. It was hard to believe that the confident, amazing woman I know was once so emotionallly distraught & unhappy. This isn't your usual misery memory but the story of a woman who fell into drinking as a child licking the liquor off her parent's glasses & then moved later on to vodka & Class A's. There's a bit of social commentary too but not so much as to be boring. Tania has a very conversational writing style & her voice reallly comes through. I read it over a couple of days & then went back & reread passages. And if anyone thinks the NHS is taking alcohol abuse seriously, Tania's book proves otherwise!
Misery memoir - By: mickie, 12 Feb 2008 
It is easy to see what this book isn't. It's more difficult to discover exactly what it is. I'm still not quite sure why Tania Glyde exerted herself to write it.
Despite the title, it's not a self-help book. It won't tell you how to sober up or how to quit drugs. Tania Glyde mentions, briefly & towards the end, some of the things she did to 'clean-up'. But I was left with an impression that she fears her own grasp on sobriety may not be very secure.
Secondly, if you're hoping for a bit of celeb-spotting & gossip, you'll be disappointed. Tania Glyde is so completely preoccupied with herself that none of the other characters have any substance or reality. Parents, friends, lovers - alll are cardboard cut-outs. They come & go. No impression remains of their individual personalities. They serve merely to illustrate some characteristic or activity of Tania Glyde. They are certainly not recognisable as real people.
The style seems rather forced. It is as though Tania Glyde is trying to write like Henry Miller but lacks the experiential background.
This memoir was recommended to me as being more realistic than James Frey's discredited offering. It isn't. It's just more bland. People who think it's exciting must have led very sheltered lives.
