Books like Rummies

What sort of book does an author write after his first novel becomes a bestseller and is made into a wildly successful movie (with sequels)? To observe that this is a good kind of problem for an author to have does not answer the question. Peter Benchley (1940-2006) wrote "Jaws" in 1974 and his potential as the son and the grandson of successful writers was realized in a single book. He wrote four other books before he wrote "Rummies," which is not at all like any of his other work. It is the story of a well-do-do, Yale-educated publishing executive whose employer, wife and daughter force him into residential treatment for his alcoholism. There have been suggestions that the book maybe be somewhat autobiographical. The truly remarkable insight into the psychology of an alcoholic which this book demonstrates could scarcely have been obtained in any other way. The Eleventh Tradition of Alcoholics Anonymous prevents members from disclosing their membership in that fellowship "at the level of press, radio and films" which includes books. But an alcoholic author who is in recovery is certainly free to share his experience, strength and hope through the media, as Benchley appears to have done in this novel. In the New Mexico facility for the treatment of drug- and alcohol-addicted people which the author imagines, he introduces a fascinating cast of not-so-improbable characters, which demonstrates the often-repeated maxim of addiction recovery that drugs and alcohol show no preference for any color, race, educational level, economic group, social class nor any other demographic. Addiction is real "equal opportunity" in that sense. This part of the novel has been compared to Ken Kesey's much more popular "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." A story wouldn't be a story without a complication and a resolution involving the characters about whom the reader most cares. That's how Benchley ends this one. Well done, sir.