APPALACHIAN FREE SPIRIT

A debut memoir traces a veteran’s many years of addiction, detailing extraordinary and disturbing events in Africa and Vietnam and his long recovery in West Virginia.   

Calling himself “a true son of Appalachia,” Talbott grew up in a small West Virginia town and was continuously perplexed by Christianity and his innate desire to live “outside the box.” As the country plunged into major social change at the end of the 1950s, the author discovered the buzz of whiskey and beer in high school. He then joined the newly founded Peace Corps and moved to Berbera, Somalia, to work with local schoolchildren. Along with plenty of humorous adventures involving cultural misunderstandings, camels, and small monkeys, it was there that he had his first encounter with true violence: bandit raids on trains and the outbreak of war in nearby Yemen against British colonists. He continued to be thrown into horrors after enlisting in the Army and finding himself in Vietnam, where he drank warm beer while rockets and mortars exploded around him (“Only a true addict could do that”). After his tour, Talbott started a family and threw himself into a career in academia in West Virginia. But he also spent 16 years drinking until he passed out every night to escape the PTSD he didn’t even realize he was experiencing. The final third of the memoir delves into his eventual recovery, recounting each of the difficult 12 steps. The book offers a familiar narrative reminiscent of Pete Hamill’s A Drinking Life, but Talbott brings a measured, multifaceted analysis to his recovery, examining the importance of a God not necessarily defined by religion. It’s with this same exacting eye that the author revisits the unfamiliar, intriguing, and harrowing moments of his life. He draws parallels between the superstitious rumors running amok in Somalian villages and the fake news of today’s social media, describes seeing people in Vietnam trapped naked in tiny bamboo cages, and carefully considers the guilt he has carried with him since returning home from war and its impact on his worldview.

Riveting, authentic scenes from war-torn countries stand out in this addiction account.