The Bartender’s Cure

I wanted very much to enjoy this book whose title drew me in. The Bartender’s Cure had great potential and flipping through it you would see a drink recipe at the start of each chapter along with little stories scattered here and there referencing these cocktails. It is the main character, Sam, and her story, however, that bored me to death. Sam is from Palo Alto, California. Her mother killed herself. She wants to go to law school but keeps putting it off. She lives in New York and is a functioning bulimic. Sleeping on her friend, Hayley’s couch, Sam knows she needs to get a job. So she does. At a bar named Joe’s Apothecary. Where there are three Dans-Han, Carver, and Olsen-and several regular customers. The book’s story is very boring with Sam in a drunken cloud all the time and pondering what she should do with her life. She thinks about her ex-boyfriend Greg too much and she can’t decide if she loves the guy she is currently dating. It’s all very depressing from cover to cover. The best part of the book is the end where all of the drink recipes are listed.