ON THE BOTTLE

The “missing clue” to the cause of Jack Kerouac’s alcoholism (re: Michael Wilmington’s review of “What Happened to Kerouac,” Sept. 20) is simple: There is none.

From the position of the American Medical Assn. and my own experience as a recovering alcoholic, the search for a reason or motivation for alcoholism comes from an old view that the disease can be altered if one just figured out “what was troubling him.”

Instead, it is a deteriorating allergy that is yet unexplained, but can only be solved by not taking that drink.

Kerouac’s plight helped me get sober. I wish someone had better understood his tragedy while he was still alive.

MARC O.

Venice