Kabi Nagata published a book about her alcoholism a few years ago called My Alcoholic Escape From Reality and My Pancreas Broke But My Life Got Better (she’s got quite a way with titles) is essentially Part 2 of that book. This one follows her relapses into drinking, dealing with pancreatitis and going in and out of rehabs and hospitals as she fights to get sober.
It’s both Part 2 and also a rehash of the first book. My Pancreas… isn’t bad and I enjoyed parts of it, but it felt like she covered a lot of the same ground in the earlier book, so the reading experience felt somewhat repetitive. The only difference is that now these episodes take place during the pandemic so she suffers from a lack of visitors once she’s in hospital.
Still, the prologue is quite intense, beginning with her admission into hospital, her escape and subsequent breakdown. One of the scenes is quite funny, where we meet one of her roommates, the Sonic Boom Granny, who annoys the crap out of her, and another scene with her dad telling her that she’s a treasure is quite moving.
It’s also a realistic reflection of the addiction experience as most people relapse, showing that her attempts to get clean in the first book didn’t stick and that it took multiple desperate attempts to get there. And, while she’s determined to stay sober, she’s well aware that she may well fall back into bad habits once more in the future.
Nagata has more than a few problems unfortunately - bulimia (which I believe is the subject of her next book), crippling social anxiety and ADHD - in addition to her diseases, and she notes that getting sober didn’t change any of that; it just means that she’s no longer drinking and destroying her organs. So this isn’t some saccharine feel-good memoir with a cheesy Hollywood-esque ending but a grounded view of addiction, which is the best approach.
The story has parts that oddly lack pertinent detail, like failing to explain what y-GTP levels are (it’s apparently a measure of an enzyme found mainly in the liver and its amount in your blood) besides saying that the higher the levels the worse it is.
A crucial scene later in the story is Nagata not being allowed to eat for four days (she’s on an IV drip during this time instead - four days does seem extreme though) and the first meal she’s given leads to her becoming desperate to escape and binge eat. But she mentions the hospital has shops where you can buy food and drink and there are vending machines everywhere - why not buy food from these places if you’re that hungry? It feels like a conveniently omitted detail.
Even if Kabi Nagata has written extensively about this part of her life before, the newer and more detailed stories are still compelling given the morbidly fascinating subject matter. The stories themselves aren’t so compelling that they make for the most amazing book but Nagata’s storytelling ability keeps you hooked and turning the pages. If you like slice-of-life manga and/or enjoyed her first addiction book, My Pancreas Broke But My Life Got Better is worth picking up.
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