According to the book description of Any
Day But Tomorrow, “Joel M. Bodnar tells the sobering and occasionally uplifting story of Sam, a veteran,
bon vivant, husband and alcoholic. The book accurately portrays Sam’s service in Vietnam during the 1970s, from the
horrors of wartime conflict to the alienation of returning to a United States divided in its embrace of veterans. As he returns
to civilian life, Sam will realize that he has bipolar disorder and must struggle furiously to overcome the symptoms of the
disease.
Nonetheless, when Sam is on an upswing, he can be the
life of the party, full of charm and wit and a gregarious man who knows how to talk to women. He knows how to drink and this
pleasure in life is one that will slowly undo him. Sam gets married, but it does little to alleviate his addiction. As middle
age and years of marriage begin to cast a pall over Sam’s life, his addiction becomes suffocating. His wife Mary is
driven to the boiling point and cannot take the pain, the expense and the loneliness of being wed to an addict. She erupts
in fury, “I’m sick of you stinking of alcohol.”
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