Unraveling Darkness: How Kyle Kouri’s The Problem Drinker Reveals the Hidden Struggles Behind Addiction
Reviewed by Brian Watson
The Problem Drinker (Clash Books; June 2026) took me on one heck of a ride, a ride that ended in a loud burst of uproarious laughter when I found a blurb from Kouri’s girlfriend, CJ Leede, famed author of Maeve Fly, that reads, “Best book I’ve ever read. Author’s super hot.”
Goals.
Kouri’s memoir, as lyrical a narrative as they come, opens with a two-paragraph-long chapter. Kouri has learned that his sister, B, almost died from an alcohol overdose. (The chapter’s title is .6, B’s blood alcohol level at her collapse.) Kouri states, “I make myself a drink. I’m not the one with a problem.” Immediately, my bullshit detector goes off. Am I about to read two hundred pages of oxymoronic denial? Or is this going to be one of those dreadfully boring (to me) recovery memoirs with frequent invocations to a higher power and mentions of AA meetings?
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