All stories of addiction are alike, yet each addict believes they are unhappy in their own unique way. Leslie Jamison understood this when she began attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings: She drank to hide her flaws and to be special at any cost. She would only heal when she stopped insisting on her originality. She compellingly recounts her dependency and contrasts it with the popular myths of drunken genius – about Raymond Carver, Billie Holiday, David Foster Wallace, and many others. "The Recovering" is a personal and collective story of drinking and sober living – wise, moving, sincere, and unexpectedly beautiful.