"For over thirty years", writes author and recovering alcoholic Kathleen FitzGerald, "the American Medical Association has recognized alcoholism as a disease with identifiable and progressive symptoms that, if untreated, lead to mental damage, physical incapacity, and early death. Yet we still do not treat alcoholism as a disease, but as a sin, a social stigma, a moral aberration."

FitzGerald traces the roots of this disease to the alcoholic's unique and unusual body chemistry, laying to rest arguments for weakness of will or "alcoholic personality." To emphasize this, she uses the term Jellinek's disease as a synonym for alcoholism.

The reality of unchecked Jellinek's disease is often harshest on the loved ones of alcoholics. While the alcoholic denies that he has no control over his drinking, family and friends likewise deny that they have no control over him and over their own reactions to him. Their guilt, frustration, and rage are shunted aside as the focus remains on the behavior of the alcoholic.

In this sound and sensitive book, Kathleen FitzGerald addresses the very real pain that those who love an alcoholic must bear. She bids them look at their own suffering and offers them hope for themselves.

With compassion and honesty, the author speaks to these other victims ­ the family and friends - and gives voice to its silent victims - the children. With moving stories, she illustrates the universal suffering that everyone whose life is touched by alcoholism knows so well, inviting them out of isolation into their own recovery.

Rarely does a book on alcoholism focus its attention on the family and friends of an alcoholic; this one does, and it does so with depth and understanding. Kathleen FitzGerald translates the cold, scientific pathology of alcoholism into meaningful human terms. No matter how alcoholism has touched your life, this is the one source book that offers you complete understanding, sound medical facts, and, most important, realistic help.

Kathleen FitzGerald is the author of Brass: Jane Byrne and the Pursuit of Power and The Good Sisters, a novel. Her articles have been published in the Chicago Tribune, New Age magazine, Christian Century, and Newsweek. Are covering alcoholic herself, FitzGerald is currently at work on a book for children about alcoholism.

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