"From the unforgettable moment when Susan Thornton first meets the charismatic and seductive Gardner at the 1979 Bread Loaf Writers' Conference to the day of his untimely, violent death, she recalls with stinging emotional resonance both the rapture of ardent physical love and the torments of adulterous deceit. Unflinchingly she examines Gardner's troubled last months as she maps the downward spiral of a demon-ridden alcoholic life. With candor she discloses the dark side of the literary genius, and with extracts from intimate letters never before published, she illuminates in Gardner's own words the creative appetite and imaginative power of this accomplished, often controversial novelist."--BOOK JACKET.