To my readers,
On January 19, 2013, I was privileged to have The Keys Weekly newspaper print an article on “Vodka On My Wheaties.” I would like to share that book review with you.
Regards,
Ann Lloyd
Keys Weekly Newspaper
January 19, 2013
Woman chronicles interesting life - Ann Lloyd is most famous for her Bahamas resort of the same name. By Sara Matthis
While not Keys-specific, I included
Vodka on My Wheaties in this collection of book reviews because large portions
of it occur in the Bahamas and mainland South Florida. It’s the life story of one
Ann Lloyd — still alive and kicking in Boca Raton — and, oh, what a life it’s
been.
She’s been there, done that and has the
T-shirt. Married a millionaire. Check. Widowed at 22 with a baby. Check.
Started a Bahamas resort. Check. Married three times. Check. Battled the bottle.
Check. And conquered severe chemical sensitivities that forced her to live like
a hermit in the Texas desert. Check.
“My idea was to write a fun book, an interesting book, a crazy book full of serendipity,” she said on a recent morning during a telephone interview.
“My idea was to write a fun book, an interesting book, a crazy book full of serendipity,” she said on a recent morning during a telephone interview.
Certainly, the first third of the book
is light-hearted, although sometimes overladen with detail. (I confess to
skipping over some of the early childhood parts.) But reading about her early
years building and running the Lloyd’s Resort (Spanish Wells, Bahamas) from
1959 to 1972 is a total hoot. There’s eccentric clientele, pet monkeys, boozy
adventures and Mexican standoffs with the local bureaucracy. It captures that
moment in history of reckless good fun in a developing country without the
complication of regrets. Lloyd said it
was her favorite part to write, adding that she’s proud of what she
accomplished in that period of her life.
“[Lloyd’s] was not that small an
operation. In the later years we could accommodate 100 guests and the resort
had a movie house, a complete dive shop, sailboats and even a submarine,” Lloyd
said. In fact it was at this time, Lloyd said, she had the inkling she would
write a book one day. She said Herman Wouk’s Don’t Stop The Carnival had come
out, detailing a similar experience, and she had a great working title.
His life story up to that point, she
said, was a perfect lead in to what would come next.
“I hope [readers] get that far into the story and are curious enough to keep reading to learn something from my struggles with alcoholism and my chemical sensitivities. They’ll want to know what this strange woman is talking about,” Lloyd said, laughing.
“I hope [readers] get that far into the story and are curious enough to keep reading to learn something from my struggles with alcoholism and my chemical sensitivities. They’ll want to know what this strange woman is talking about,” Lloyd said, laughing.
The middle of Vodka on My Wheaties
chronicles the collapse of her second marriage, her subsequent move to South
Florida, and the collapse of her third marriage. During these years she did her
biggest battle with the bottle and Valium. She saw a psychiatrist regularly.
She attempted suicide more than once. She was committed to a mental
institution. It was a painful period to revisit, Lloyd said.
“Back then they didn’t have a place for alcoholics. It was scary,” she said of the mental ward at a South Florida hospital.
“Back then they didn’t have a place for alcoholics. It was scary,” she said of the mental ward at a South Florida hospital.
As Lloyd was one of the forerunners to
seek treatment for alcoholism, she was also a forerunner in the late 1980s in the
painful discovery of what it’s like to have severe chemical sensitivities,
sometimes called Environmental Illness. In Lloyd, the sickness manifested
itself with dizzy spells and a violent allergy to … well, everything. Lloyd
wrote that it got so bad she had to ride around in an ancient, stripped-down
pickup truck devoid of chemical “newness” and sleep on the beach. Eventually, she
learned to manage the disease and leads a fairly normal life in South Florida,
just retreating every night to “detox” in her specially constructed
condominium.
Ultimately, the book is a chance to
tell this last important bit, Lloyd said. The first manuscript was finished in
the early ‘90s and a second rewrite was finished a couple of years later. When
the illness became more widely accepted, that’s when she said she knew it was
time to publish.
“The story was the illness,” Lloyd
said. “When Dr. Oz came along and started talking about how we’re killing
ourselves, I got the courage too.”
To purchase Ann Lloyd’s Vodka on My
Wheaties, visit amazon.com or vodkaonmywheaties.com.
By Sara Matthis
Keys Weekly Newspaper
Marathon, FL
