This informative, levelheaded book draws on pioneering scientific work during the past 10 years to make the case for alcoholism as a disease. It isn't, however, wedded to that concept and deals fairly with other views of alcoholism. Literary quotations lighten the science as the book conveys the expansion of knowledge about how alcohol affects body and mind that the new understanding of the brain and nervous system has spurred. Armed with such understanding, the book points out, for example, why the term drinking and driving is more accurate than drunk driving: a driver doesn't have to be drunk to more easily get into an accident. Other intriguing new understandings include regarding the gene some associate with alcoholism as a disease as a reward gene rather than an alcogene, and responding to the question Is alcohol beneficial to your health? with a resounding in most circumstances, for most people, no. Much remains to be discovered; meanwhile, this valuable book reports current scientific knowledge.

William Beatty