Jim Dent v. The Bottle

The High Life and Fast Times of Jim Dent

The celebrated author of The Junction Boys has a thousand stories to tell. But each rollicking tale is tinged with the sad truth that he has a serious drinking problem. Even Dent himself can’t count how many times he’s been arrested.

He went to Mexico planning to drink himself to death. By January 2014, Jim Dent had alienated anyone who ever loved him. He was wanted on felony warrants in at least two Texas counties—stemming from his eighth, ninth, and 10th DWI arrests. And his book was so late that the publisher canceled the contract. So he cut off his ankle monitors and made his way down to San José del Cabo, on the Sea of Cortez. He got a condo on the beach for $800 a month and started drinking big bottles of Oso Negro vodka, which he could buy for 83 pesos—a little more than five bucks. He soon decided that he liked it there, and he didn’t want to die after all.

An internet phone line allowed him to call the United States, and he started working again on what would now be an independently published ebook—the first part of a trilogy—about the hard-partying star quarterback Johnny Manziel. A friend from Dallas paid him to write a screenplay about the legendary SMU running back Doak Walker. Dent would type in the mornings, then go swimming in the warm, clear water a few hundred feet from his door. Then he’d write a little more, cut out around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, and reward himself with a drink or six. He had a girlfriend he’d see sometimes, and he made friends at a few bars in town.

The High Life and Fast Times of Jim Dent - D Magazine