Time Is All We Have

In this memoir, the alcohol-saturated author and artist Barnaby Conrad, once respected in the literary, art, and entertainment worlds, tells of his degeneration to alcoholism and his late-life attempt to clean up, with the help of the Betty Ford Clinic. Conrad is a skilled writer, and Christopher Lane conveys the details of his sophisticated professional and social lives, rife with authors, artists, and actors. We hear the humor, pathos, and gradual triumph in Lane's voice as he carries out his sobering journey to good physical and mental health. Conrad's attempt to confront the truth of his experience and provide a cautionary tale succeeds in this production. D.J.B. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

October 28, 1986
Betty Ford's doctor, Joseph Pursch, states in a foreword that this is the best book on alcoholism and drug addiction treatment that he has read. It is among the best written by the author of Matador and some 17 other books. Conrad at age 63 was an alcoholic who had failed in his attempts to stop drinking. Then he entered the Betty Ford Center in Southern California, run on Alcoholics Anonymous principles by recovering addicts. In Conrad's candid, comprehensive account, readers virtually live the patients' experiences. Accounts of his progress and that of fellow alcoholics are interspersed with poignant reflections on F. Scott Fitzgerald and other authors destroyed by drinking. But his concentration in the book is primarily on the people responsible for the center's signal successes. Among them is the former First Lady, no figurehead, but actively engaged in helping other recovering addicts.