Alan Kaufman's novel Matches was published by Little, Brown and Company in the Fall of 2005. David Mamet has called Matches an extraordinary war novel, and Dave Eggers has written that there is more passion here then you see in twenty other books combined. Kaufman's critically-acclaimed memoir, Jew Boy (Fromm/Farrar, Straus and Giroux), has appeared in three editions, hardcover and paperback, in the United States and Great Britain.
Kaufman is the award-winning editor of several anthologies, the most recent of which, The Outlaw Bible of American Literature, was recently reviewed on the cover of the New York Times Book Review. There are two more volumes in Kaufman's Outlaw anthology series: The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry and The Outlaw Bible of American Essays. He has taught in the graduate and undergraduate schools of the Academy of Art University and in writing workshops in San Francisco. His work has appeared in Salon, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Partisan Review, and The San Francisco Examiner. Kaufman has been widely anthologized, most recently in Nothing Makes You Free: Writings From Descendents of Holocaust Survivors (WW Norton). Kaufman is a member of PEN American Center. Kaufman's papers and manuscripts are on deposit in the Special Collections Library of the University of Delaware and he is profiled in the Europa Biographical Reference Series.
"This is one of those books that speaks to you on many levels, but
at the end of the day you will not be able to look at life the
same. Simple, satisfying and full of lessons for all that are
willing to learn, "Drunken Angel" proves that no matter how much
work it takes we can still come out better on the other side."
--Lunch.com
"Anyone looking for an extraordinarily well-written tale of
personal redemption, of overcoming addiction and finding a joyous
and rewarding life on the other side, get a copy of "Drunken Angel"
and read it, cover to cover. You'll be glad you did."
--Addiction Treatment
"This type of memoir can often feel predictable, but what makes
Kaufman's stand out is the passion with which he throws himself
into recovery... In a less talented writer's hands, a work like
this might have come off like testimonial, but Kaufman is an
amazing writer who really nails the recovery milieu. His work
reminds me of Harry Crews, who famously presented on the page the
poverty stricken deep South of his own childhood. What Crews did
for depression-era Georgia sharecroppers, Kaufman does for people
recovering in 12-step programs. Drunken Angel tells in
pitch-perfect language and tone what recovery from alcoholism by
going to 12-step meetings is like ... Kaufman has a great capacity
to surprise and delight ...a testament to the human spirit and will
to survive."
--Internet Review of Books
"Kaufman -- who also wrote the books "Matches" and "Jewboy" --
describes wild and dangerous binge drinking as powerfully as
masters of the genre, like Charles Bukowski and Frederick
Exley."
--The Jewish Daily Foreword Reviews
"In more than two hundred pages of blistering hangovers, park bench
nights, and fistfights, Kaufman becomes a celebrated writer and
avant garde arts advocate... A clearly articulated roadmap to
freedom for the addict, "Drunken Angel" is an easy and exciting
memoir. This outlaw hero is someone to cheer for..." --"Foreword
Re
"Anyone looking for an extraordinarily well-written tale of
personal redemption, of overcoming addiction and finding a joyous
and rewarding life on the other side, get a copy of "Drunken Angel"
and read it, cover to cover. You'll be glad you did."
--Addiction Treatment
"This type of memoir can often feel predictable, but what makes
Kaufman's stand out is the passion with which he throws himself
into recovery... In a less talented writer's hands, a work like
this might have come off like testimonial, but Kaufman is an
amazing writer who really nails the recovery milieu. His work
reminds me of Harry Crews, who famously presented on the page the
poverty stricken deep South of his own childhood. What Crews did
for depression-era Georgia sharecroppers, Kaufman does for people
recovering in 12-step programs. Drunken Angel tells in
pitch-perfect language and tone what recovery from alcoholism by
going to 12-step meetings is like ... Kaufman has a great capacity
to surprise and delight ...a testament to the human spirit and will
to survive."
--Internet Review of Books
"Kaufman -- who also wrote the books "Matches" and "Jewboy" --
describes wild and dangerous binge drinking as powerfully as
masters of the genre, like Charles Bukowski and Frederick
Exley."
--The Jewish Daily Foreword Reviews
"In more than two hundred pages of blistering hangovers, park bench
nights, and fistfights, Kaufman becomes a celebrated writer and
avant garde arts advocate... A clearly articulated roadmap to
freedom for the addict, "Drunken Angel" is an easy and exciting
memoir. This outlaw hero is someone to cheer for..." --"Foreword
Reviews"
"[An] addictive memoir of self-destruction, recuperation and a
literary coming-of-age." --"Kirkus Reviews"
"Whether the subject is parental abuse, alcoholism, or the travails
of the writing life, Kaufman's ("Jew Boy; Matches") memoir
violently grabs your attention, refusing to let up until he's had
his say. This is a br
"This type of memoir can often feel predictable, but what makes
Kaufman's stand out is the passion with which he throws himself
into recovery... In a less talented writer's hands, a work like
this might have come off like testimonial, but Kaufman is an
amazing writer who really nails the recovery milieu. His work
reminds me of Harry Crews, who famously presented on the page the
poverty stricken deep South of his own childhood. What Crews did
for depression-era Georgia sharecroppers, Kaufman does for people
recovering in 12-step programs. Drunken Angel tells in
pitch-perfect language and tone what recovery from alcoholism by
going to 12-step meetings is like ... Kaufman has a great capacity
to surprise and delight ...a testament to the human spirit and will
to survive."
--Internet Review of Books
"Kaufman -- who also wrote the books "Matches" and "Jewboy" --
describes wild and dangerous binge drinking as powerfully as
masters of the genre, like Charles Bukowski and Frederick
Exley."
--The Jewish Daily Foreword Reviews
"In more than two hundred pages of blistering hangovers, park bench
nights, and fistfights, Kaufman becomes a celebrated writer and
avant garde arts advocate... A clearly articulated roadmap to
freedom for the addict, "Drunken Angel" is an easy and exciting
memoir. This outlaw hero is someone to cheer for..." --"Foreword
Reviews"
"[An] addictive memoir of self-destruction, recuperation and a
literary coming-of-age." --"Kirkus Reviews"
"Whether the subject is parental abuse, alcoholism, or the travails
of the writing life, Kaufman's ("Jew Boy; Matches") memoir
violently grabs your attention, refusing to let up until he's had
his say. This is a brutish and riveting trek through a talented and
severely alcoholic psyche. Those who persist are rewarded with
stylish, intense writing and the intimate details of the author's
metamorphosis." --"Publishers Weekly"
"Alan Kaufman, the author of the lively but exasperating au
"In more than two hundred pages of blistering hangovers, park bench
nights, and fistfights, Kaufman becomes a celebrated writer and
avant garde arts advocate... A clearly articulated roadmap to
freedom for the addict, "Drunken Angel" is an easy and exciting
memoir. This outlaw hero is someone to cheer for..." --"Foreword
Reviews"
"[An] addictive memoir of self-destruction, recuperation and a
literary coming-of-age." --"Kirkus Reviews"
"Whether the subject is parental abuse, alcoholism, or the travails
of the writing life, Kaufman's ("Jew Boy; Matches") memoir
violently grabs your attention, refusing to let up until he's had
his say. This is a brutish and riveting trek through a talented and
severely alcoholic psyche. Those who persist are rewarded with
stylish, intense writing and the intimate details of the author's
metamorphosis." --"Publishers Weekly"
"Alan Kaufman, the author of the lively but exasperating
autobiography of alcoholism, Drunken Angel, sweetens th
"[An] addictive memoir of self-destruction, recuperation and a
literary coming-of-age." --"Kirkus Reviews"
"Whether the subject is parental abuse, alcoholism, or the travails
of the writing life, Kaufman's ("Jew Boy; Matches") memoir
violently grabs your attention, refusing to let up until he's had
his say. This is a brutish and riveting trek through a talented and
severely alcoholic psyche. Those who persist are rewarded with
stylish, intense writing and the intimate details of the author's
metamorphosis." --"Publishers Weekly"
"Alan Kaufman, the author of the lively but exasperating
autobiography of alcoholism, Drunken Angel, sweetens the pot
considerably. He drops so many names, and finds himself involved in
so many improbably episodes of transnational mayhem and kinky sex,
that the escapades could almost fill a Bond novel. But to be fair,
there's nothing debonair going on here... Alan Kaufman is more Jack
Kerouac than James Bond: One of the founding members of Califor
"Alan Kaufman, the author of the lively but exasperating
autobiography of alcoholism, Drunken Angel, sweetens the pot
considerably. He drops so many names, and finds himself involved in
so many improbably episodes of transnational mayhem and kinky sex,
that the escapades could almost fill a Bond novel. But to be fair,
there's nothing debonair going on here... Alan Kaufman is more Jack
Kerouac than James Bond: One of the founding members of
California's Spoken Word scene, editor of The Outlaw Bible of
American Poetry, Kaufman bounced through the beat/hippie/downtown
scenes in New York, and San Francisco and Israel, writing for
Jewish publications, treating his wives shabbily, and blacking out
all over whatever town he happened to be in. It's not pretty, and
it's not meant to be."
--Dirk Hanson, Addiction Inbox
"With an outsized heart to go with its outsized thirst, "Drunken
Angel" tells the sort of truths that feel like myths and the sort
of myths that feel like truth.
--Da
"With an outsized heart to go with its outsized thirst, "Drunken
Angel" tells the sort of truths that feel like myths and the sort
of myths that feel like truth.
--Daniel Handler, author of "Adverb, " ""Drunken Angel" reads like
a recovery memoir written in another time, from another generation,
though it's of the present. Alan Kaufman's story is riveting: raw
in its passion and lacerating in its testimony."
--Oscar Villalon, former book editor at the San Francisco
Chronicle, board member of the National Book Critics Circle
"As engrossing, moving and honest a literary memoir as one will
ever read, "Drunken Angel" is that rare combination of aching
beauty and haunting truth, all made vivid and alive with a poetry
that is both turbulent and profoundly wise. Alan Kaufman takes his
readers on a Jewish Huck Finn journey of addiction, regret, and
rage. With his immense literary gifts as a storyteller, he turns
the jagged, jaded tale of his life into a true work of art
"With an outsized heart to go with its outsized thirst, "Drunken
Angel" tells the sort of truths that feel like myths and the sort
of myths that feel like truth.
--Daniel Handler, author of "Adverb, " ""Drunken Angel" reads like
a recovery memoir written in another time, from another generation,
though it's of the present. Alan Kaufman's story is riveting: raw
in its passion and lacerating in its testimony."
--Oscar Villalon, former book editor at the San Francisco
Chronicle, board member of the National Book Critics Circle
"As engrossing, moving and honest a literary memoir as one will
ever read, "Drunken Angel" is that rare combination of aching
beauty and haunting truth, all made vivid and alive with a poetry
that is both turbulent and profoundly wise. Alan Kaufman takes his
readers on a Jewish Huck Finn journey of addiction, regret, and
rage. With his immense literary gifts as a storyteller, he turns
the jagged, jaded tale of his life into a true work of
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