The Icelandic connection - 01.06.2010, Síða 51

Vol. 63 #1
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
49
Time in a Bottle
By Janice Halldorson
Author House, $16.95
Reviewed by Helga Malis
Janice Halldorson, author of Time in a
Bottle, has written this book in part, in an
attempt to help women addicts see them-
selves in the behaviours exhibited by her
characters. Her hope is that if addicted
women can identify with one or more of
these characters, they will no longer feel
alone and isolated, and so can reach out to
the help that is available and get on the
road to recovery.
Halldorson’s women abuse the gamut
of substances, as well as gambling,
unaware that it is not just the substance
that is their problem. But the author
understands that addiction is a disease of
the mind, body and spirit; only when all
of those aspects of the addict are
addressed will the healing begin.
Halldorson is a brave in choosing to
write about women and their addictions.
Many in main stream society ignore the
problem and many more don’t want to
read about these desperate female addicts
and their hope-less lives. The book is
worth reading to understand how lives
can get out of control and how hard it is
to remedy.
The book features a chapter on each
of nine women, Claudia, Gina, Dianne,
Terrina, Joy, Shilo, Lylja, Miriam and
Holly. Halldorson describes their home
life, parents and siblings, etc. to establish
the setting and point out the dynamics,
tensions and stresses that have an effect
on how children grow up and the kind of
scars they can carry into adult life as a
result of poverty, parental fighting,
unfairness, not having friends, etc.
These stories are not easy to read as
Halldorson does not shield us from the
subject’s reality. Some families are chaot-
ic; some empty of love, some where only
perfection is rewarded. There is a lack of
nurturing in some of these families,
almost no praise, and either great expec-
tations or none at all, leaving the child
and later the woman, with very low self
esteem, few interpersonal skills and with
a checkered school record.
As you read you just want to get into