Unraveling Darkness: How Kyle Kouri’s The Problem Drinker Reveals the Hidden Struggles Behind Addiction
Add to that litany of rejections the dysfunction of Kouri’s nuclear family, his grief from his father’s death compounded with grief of a heart-friend, his girlfriend’s brother, and then, near the book’s conclusion, the Palisades Fire tragedy in 2025, and you could be forgiven for assuming that The Problem Drinker is a raft borne along solely on the bleakest of currents.
It isn’t.
Two things save Kouri’s memoir from utter bathos. The first is his ongoing commitment to his own goodness and his joy, as random as they come, as briefly as they remain. Early on in Kouri’s relationship with Leede, she experiences a panic attack in midtown Manhattan, late at night. Kouri sits down with her on the steps of the Saint John the Divine cathedral and holds her, reassures her, talks her through the anxiety.
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