Lev Grossman's Favorite Cocktails In Literature

Cocktails have always gotten short shrift in literature. This is partly because the cocktail didn't arise until the 19th century, thereby missing out on most of literary history, but also because from the point of view of the writer the cocktail falls between, if you will, two bar stools: it's not a working class hero like the beer, and it doesn't have the deep interior richness and complexity of wine. Novelists are suckers for that stuff.

As a result, a good cocktail is hard to find, at least in books. Whatever the charms of Eliot's "The Cocktail Party," or the cocktail party in "Mrs. Dalloway," no one ever remembers what was drunk there. Even in John Cheever, where everyone is on a permanent gin and tonic IV drip, it's hard to track down a memorable description of the drink itself. But the cocktail has its literary champions, who have risen to the challenge of its cracking ice and its high alcohol content, which renders streams of consciousness that much more streamy and associative. Here are a few of their more memorable creations:

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Jake Barnes' and Brett Ashley's martinis

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In those devastating last pages of "The Sun Also Rises," when the fiesta's over and everything and everyone is thoroughly ruined, Brett and Jake retreat to a hotel bar to lick their wounds ("No matter how vulgar a hotel is," Jake observes, "the bar is always nice"). The glasses are frosted with droplets and full up to the rim, as martini glasses should be, and they have to clink them together there on the bar instead of lifting them - Brett bends down to slurp at hers before she picks it up. "Bung-o" is their toast of choice. A perfect scene.

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In those devastating last pages of "The Sun Also Rises," when the fiesta's over and everything and everyone is thoroughly ruined, Brett and Jake retreat to a hotel bar to lick their wounds ("No matter how vulgar a hotel is," Jake observes, "the bar is always nice"). The glasses are frosted with droplets and full up to the rim, as martini glasses should be, and they have to clink them together there on the bar instead of lifting them - Brett bends down to slurp at hers before she picks it up. "Bung-o" is their toast of choice. A perfect scene.

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This Cocktail

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

I'll pass on this round I'll drink to that!

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Comments

[triplettam]

09:03 PM on 08/21/2011

A beer milkshake from "Sweet Thursday." Doc finally succumbed and tried one and thought it pretty good. I finally tried it years after I read about it and was pretty good. Sounds terrible. Also, the concoction from unfinished drinks that the Boys used to get from the bar always sounded amusing, but is--of course--unreplicable.

[John David Redux]

03:51 PM on 08/21/2011

Dumbest article ever. Even though the competition's getting pretty tight lately.

[trekbette]

02:06 AM on 08/20/2011

The warm ale at McAnally's Pub in Chicago is a favorite of one awesome Wizard.

[Eva Munet]

05:13 PM on 08/20/2011

Great minds think alike! Scroll down, lol.

[trekbette]

10:07 PM on 08/20/2011

Love Dresden! Love everything about Dresden. Nice to meet a fellow uh... Dresdenite?

[John Domini]

02:45 PM on 08/19/2011

Donald Barthelme's wonderful, hilarious story "Critique de la Vie Quotidienne" (originally in SADNESS, then in SIXTY STORIES) features a cocktail breakdown -- out of ice! -- brilliantly.

[Circe]

02:42 PM on 08/19/2011

What, I mean what? No mention of Wodehouse's Green Swizzle?
Anatole and I are appalled.

[CanadianBuster]

02:26 PM on 08/19/2011

and Holden Caulfield's whiskey sours...hey, wasn't he too young to drink?

[BlueRoseofTexas]

01:12 PM on 08/19/2011

Dear Moderators:

I do not think this post deserves to be placed in detention, do you?

"Totally agree. It is perfect in every way."

Bemused Blue

[John David Redux]

03:51 PM on 08/21/2011

Maybe they nixed it because it adds nothing to the conversation.

[BlueRoseofTexas]

09:23 AM on 08/22/2011

So supporting an insight with a statement of agreement is not contributing to a conversation? I hope I don't get seated beside you at a dinner anytime soon as I suppose I would be expected to sit there mute while you made various assertions and declarations. I was merely highlighting the seeming randomness of the moderation which frequently holds back totally innocuous comments such as mine.

[PRONESE]

01:08 PM on 08/19/2011

For me, Earnest Hemingway sipping a Singapore Sling at the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel Comes to Mind.
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raffles_Hotel
R/ PRONESE

[3fingerbrown]

12:57 PM on 08/19/2011

Well done -- one of the best of these list-slideshows I've seen here.

Here's an amusing sidebar -- recipes for a few famous writers' favorite cocktails:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6624971

[willh101]

12:55 PM on 08/19/2011

Hemingway's "Fiesta" is #1 on this list for a reason. What a great read.

[Eva Munet]

12:51 PM on 08/19/2011

Dresden series by Jim Butcher. Mac's dark ale, warm.....the way it's supposed to be had, always wanted to drink one.

[stixaz]

12:36 PM on 08/19/2011

Hemingway's "Farewell to Arms" has so much booze in it I got buzzed just reading it.

[ChristineBee]

02:29 PM on 08/19/2011

I remember reading it for the first time and wondering what Pernod was and why they insisted on having one everywhere!

[StaircaseCO]

12:11 PM on 08/19/2011

Showed a bartender how to make a Vesper at a hipster place the other day. I love martinis and the Bond version is stellar, when mixed properly with good booze. One more, Moneypenny!

[teachpeace]

12:10 PM on 08/19/2011

Kurt Vonnegut’s

Breakfast of Champions.

[Paul Houston]

12:04 PM on 08/19/2011

So glad to see the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster was included!