Chapter 4Six men sat alone in a church basement, a pot of coffee in one corner, the air filled with the smell of cigarette smoke.
The men spoke in unison, reading aloud from a purple book each had open before him, Hope & Recovery: “Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not give themselves to this simple program…They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living that demands rigorous honesty…There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.
“Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you have decided you want what we have
