Chapter 4, Hunger, (56-62) Summary and Analysis

Hunger is essential to alcoholism. Sometimes, Knapp would ask herself, "Are you driven by a feeling of hunger and need?" She did indeed feel this way. Whenever she would drink, she would carefully measure how much drink was poured into her glass. If there was not enough, she became frantic for how to obtain more. A little was never enough. In fact, Knapp never knew when enough was enough. She would always get blind drunk. She did not mean too—it just happened.

Knapp recalls that a few months after her father died, she went out to dinner with her boyfriend, Michael, and his parents. Because Michael's parents were not big drinkers, they only ordered one bottle of wine. The thought of one glass panicked Knapp. To get through dinner, she excused herself from the table...