Red Eye

Life is messy. One minute you're bombing Jameson in strange bars with stranger people, the next you put down the bottle-and everything changes.

Red Eye is a series of essays that dismantle the myth of the drunk writer while embracing the chance to see parts of the world you've only dreamed of. For anyone who's ever felt alone in a crowded room, broken, or just bone-tired of life's bullshit, these stories remind us that survival can be brutal-but it can also be hilarious.

From Chicago tavern philosophy to the steps of Barcelona's Gothic Quarter, from raising kids in Texas to wrestling the ghosts in your head, Robert Dean's latest collection is a passport into the funny, heartbreaking, and deeply human stuff that makes life worth writing down. (The Dublin story alone is worth your five bucks-trust me.)