Author tipples the funny bone
Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall likes to drink. And he likes to get drunk.
Like most, however, he does not like being hungover.
Rather than taking the condition lying down (except when he literally can’t do anything else), Bishop-Stall embarked on a seemingly quixotic quest: to determine the scientific roots of the hangover, and find a cure.
Bishop-Stall’s erudite and frequently hilarious new book, Hungover, follows the author around the world as he attempts to unravel this most pressing of medical mysteries. The book is a riotous exploration of the history of drinking, exegeses on different varieties of drink (and the differing effects they have on the drinker), traditional hangover cures and cutting-edge scientific remedies.
All of this would make for a tremendous work of well-researched non-fiction. What elevates Hungover, however, is the fact that, for the most part, BishopStall uses himself as a guinea pig for his research. As a result, the book is a brilliant chronicle of Bishop-Stall “forcing” himself to extreme states of inebriation, so he can try out the many and varied possible cures.
We tag along as Bishop-Stall piggybacks his independent research on his journalistic assignments (the freelance writer’s patented double-dip).
In Las Vegas, he gets wrecked before taking out a high-performance car for a run on test-track. In England, he gets well-hammered after a day spent working as a blacksmith. There’s a party at which he enlists the guests as specimens for his research, and a polar bear swim in Vancouver that is at once chilling and the stuff of high comedy — for the reader, at least.
He hangs out with Playboy Playmates and a former spy (maybe), researchers and religious leaders, bartenders, brewers and businessmen, and goes drink for drink with a young man as they retrace the pub crawl from The World’s End, with spectacular results.
Rooted in Bishop-Stall’s wry good humour and a self-effacing willingness to do whatever it takes, Hungover is a perfect book for the holiday season, both for personal use and for gift-giving.
Keep it away from impressionable readers, though. I’m not concerned that they may take up drinking, but something far worse: they may want to become journalists.
As a result, the book is a brilliant chronicle of Bishop-Stall “forcing” himself to extreme states of inebriation