The Cup of Fury
by Upton Sinclair
Completed April 2001
I found this book on my bookshelf and started reading it because of the quotation on the cover: "I compile a list of the drinking people I have known. Two score of them went to their doom, eleven as suicides. This is their story." And quite a good story it is. Sinclair has a very readable style, and brings a great sense of urgency and "crusade" (as he calls it), to whatever he writes. This crusade against drinking is no exception. And although it is dated (written in the 1950s), it is still relevant. One sees the analogies between one's heavy-drinking co-workers and the heavy-drinking literary characters -- Jack London and others -- that Sinclair profiles.
It's a good, quick read. If you can find it (mostly out-of-print) I'd definitely recommend it for someone concerned about alcoholism or drinking (their own or others).