Absinthe: History in a Bottle

Barnaby Conrad

I'm not sure what I was expecting from Absinthe: History in a Bottle, but I wasn't expecting what I got. What I got is pretty good, if shallow, but a lot of the text deficiency is made up with copious illustration.

Conrad traces the history of absinthe in rather impressionist fashion, focusing more on notable absinthe users and manufacturers than the drink itself. A good portion of the work (probably two-thirds of it, perhaps even more) centers on the years surrounding its prohibition in various countries, with scant time given to the many years since. Paradoxically, it's those last few pages, where Conrad relates his attempt to track down a bottle of the stuff in Europe in the late eighties, that are the book's best pages, personal and compelling. The rest is decent, but could have been done better.