The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Jackson, Charles R. The Lost Weekend. New York: Vintage Books, 2013.

This novel was written in 1944, and it takes place in New York City in the year 1936. The protagonist is Don Birnam, a man in his mid-thirties. He is unemployed and is an alcoholic. His brother, Wick, pays for Don’s apartment rent. The novel opens on a Thursday. Don has been sober for three days. Wick has planned an upstate retreat for them so that Wick can help Don remain sober. However, Don evades Wick, and Wick leaves town with Don. Wick hired someone to clean Don’s apartment, but Don takes that money and goes to a bar. As he begins drinking, he enters an alternating cycle of self-aggrandizement and self-loathing. Don aspires to be a writer, but his insecurity and alcoholism have mostly prevented him from writing anything.

After Don runs out of money, he leaves the bar and borrows cash from a woman who operates a nearby laundry business. Don goes to a different bar with the money, and spends it all on drinks there. He then tries to steal the purse of the woman next to him, but he is caught and ejected from the bar. Don returns to his apartment to drink whisky, and he eventually falls asleep. The next morning—Friday—he goes to a liquor store as soon as it opens. Momentarily, he daydreams about being a famous virtuoso piano player. He then takes his newly purchased whisky to a movie theater so that he can watch a film while he drinks. Don eventually falls asleep in the theater. He eventually wakes up and then goes to the bar near his apartment. As he drinks there, he flirts with a young woman named Gloria, who works as a hostess at the bar. Don makes up various lies about his life and then asks her on a date. Gloria agrees and tells Don to meet her at the bar at 8:00 PM.

A stranger in the bar begins conversing with Don. The stranger is a man named Brad. Don and Brad soon realize that they attended the same college at the same time. They even were members of the same fraternity. However, shortly before Brad joined the fraternity, Don was removed for expressing romantic feelings to another member of the fraternity. (Don is a closeted bisexual man.) Don leaves the bar to continue drinking in his apartment. The next day—Saturday—he decides to sell his typewriter at a pawnshop. However, every pawnshop he finds is closed. He eventually learns that they are closed for a holiday. By that point, Don has walked 3.5 miles and has no choice but to walk 3.5 miles back to his apartment. Don borrows money from a store owner and uses it to buy whisky, which he drinks in his apartment. After drinking all of the whisky, he drunkenly falls down the stairs as he is trying to leave the apartment building.

He awakes the next day—Sunday—in a hospital. He is in an alcoholism ward, and he has a fractured skull from hitting his head when he fell. Don discharges himself from the hospital as soon as the hospital officials allow him to do so. He trades his watch for a bottle of whisky and then drinks the whisky in his apartment. He eventually falls asleep and awakes the next day, which is Monday. Don gains a moment of clarity and decides that he must try not to drink. Eventually, Don’s girlfriend—Helen—arrives to check on him. She brings him to her apartment so that she can supervise him. Don goes into withdrawal and begins to have hallucinations. The next morning, Don becomes overwhelmed once again by his addiction. After Helen leaves for work, Don steals Helen’s fur coat and leaves the apartment. He sells the fur coat and then finds extra money in one of his pockets. Don spends this money on whisky, brings the whisky to his apartment, and continues to drink. His previous moment of clarity is gone, and he has once again become deluded into thinking that he has everything under control.