Aimé Duval (Lucien) is "a singer-songwriter, a Jesuit, and an alcoholic." His childhood was happy; his parents loved him tenderly. He wore through his wooden shoes on the cobblestones of the long road to school. His companion on the way: the moon, which ran when he ran and stopped when he stopped.
Then came his calling. In 1936, he became a Jesuit with joy. He composed his first songs and gave his first concerts in 1954, releasing his debut record—a tremendous success.
Known as "God's Guitarist," he created a new form of religious popular song, rooted in Christian love and the conviction that a different world could be built to make people happy. Within a decade, forty nations welcomed him to their greatest theaters to hear his gospel of hope.
But in the early 1970s, Father Duval vanished from public life. At the height of his fame, alcoholism had claimed him.
In his book, he confesses his addiction and then his recovery. It is a long journey back, searching for the roots of his drinking: an extreme sensitivity that left him defenseless against cruelty, dishonesty, and stupidity—wounds that scarred him deeply. There was also the stress and the incomprehension of some of his brother Jesuits, who had grasped nothing of his mission through music. "I was painfully sensitive to unjust criticism. Cruelty and dishonesty surrounded me, and neither my father nor my mother had prepared me to withstand them."
At his lowest point, he found healing above all through Alcoholics Anonymous, whose simple method begins with an act of humility and courage that strips away even the most degrading truths: "My name is Lucien and I am an alcoholic." The group's response is silence, patience, and quiet friendship. Those who have lived through it understand, and they do not judge. Through the successive steps comes reconciliation with those harmed, and finally the restoration of love for oneself—destroyed by alcohol.
"Alcoholics hunger so desperately to escape that they cling to every hope within reach. That is the whole of the A.A. method. It does not appeal to reason. It relies on the will to live. It is mysterious."
Aimé Duval wrote this book for alcoholics, to show them the way out. And he wrote it for all of us, so we might understand that alcoholism is a disease—"a disease of the soul"—not a moral failing. And to all he says:
"Alcohol forced me to cry out to the whole world that there is a gulf between incomprehension, pride, and stupidity on one side, and on the other, the sweetness of a future world where love will reign."
- review by A.C., 1987