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I am an Alcoholic and a Drug Addict and a Criminal.
This is James’s standard, oft-quoted definition of himself, and it is repeated several times in the book. It is a bald, hard sentence, with no commas to soften the blows between the words, and capital letters drawing attention to each term. Whether he meant to or not, James has completed the first and primary requirement of AA’s Twelve Step program: he has admitted that he has a problem with drugs and drink. At no point in the book does James deny this. He is passively placed on a plane, and when his parents meet him at the airport and drive him off to a clinic, he offers no objection whatsoever. He’s unhappy and unresponsive, but he puts up no real fight.
The part of this sentence that should probably be looked
at most closely is the inclusion of the term “Criminal.” That James
has a drug and alcohol problem is completely understood—but to lump in
the word
