The Captain's Been Drinking

​Benjamin Drevlow

Paperback and Ebook available now!

A new novel from the singular Benjamin Drevlow.

praise for the captain’s been drinking:

"Drevlow has f-wording done it again. Sit back and enjoy a ride on the Queen of the Northland with a degenerate captain who has been drinking, a first mate who has been drinking, and possibly even an author who's been drinking. A story as storm-tossed as the white-capped Gitche Gumee told in elegant as b-wording f-word micro chapters that move in slow motion and as quick as a DIY castration. Don't be a p-word, read it."

–Colin Gee, author of Lips

"Benjamin Drevlow’s the captain has been drinking is an often hilarious, often offensive and often tragic chameleon of a novel. Through propulsive, stream of conscience narration, Drevlow transitions seamlessly between crude humor, tender moments of fragile masculinity, and poignant observations on some of life’s biggest questions. At once a buddy comedy, a tragic love story and a murder mystery, Drevlow’s novel is (and this is perhaps the biggest compliment I can give) above all else, a joy to read."

–Wilson Koewing, author of Rolling on the Bottom

"With two topics that immediately make me buy a book, weird jobs and unrequited horniness, Drevlow's coming-of-age tale of a sensitive boy who’s becoming a sensitive man (when being hard is all the rage) will have you laughing out loud, palming your own face, but peeking past your fingers to see what horrible thing happens next."

–Tyler Dempsey, author of Will We All Still See Each Other Afterward

"The Captain's Been Drinking lures you in with a deceptively new-adult setup: a mid-twenties man, so intent on being innocuous he won't let himself swear on the page, nurses a broken heart and tries to figure out his life while spending summers on a boat in a drunken haze with his roommate and boss, a gleefully decadent Captain Eddie. Drevlow ramps up the depravity so slowly you don't even realize you're being boiled alive in it. The captain's been drinking reveals itself as a Bukowskian tragedy, where you root for the despicable and detest the spineless, feeling a bit queasy about where your allegiances lie. Drevlow's affecting prose is almost hypnotic in its rhythm, punctuated by flashes of poignancy and rawness that grip your throat so hard they bruise the windpipe."

–Maura Yzmore, author of Dangling


praise for drevlow

"If Harry Crews and Chuck Bukowski had a love child, it would have been Ben Drevlow."

–David Tromblay, author of Coydog

"Drevlow writes with a raw hand and a poet’s tongue, delivering authentic characters and then flaying them alive for the reader."

–Steph Post, author of A Tree Born Crooked

"No one writes about toxic masculinity with as much bravery and empathy as Ben Drevlow."

–Meagan Lucas, author of Here in the Dark

"Drevlow is a skillful ratskellar tale-teller, drawing from dregs and putrid ripening of growth, splintering into unforeseen factions."

–Robert Vaughan, author of ASKEW

"Drevlow’s greatest gift to his readers is a compulsion toward truth in all things, as even the smallest victories are earned via grit and blunt-force trauma."

–Mike Chin, author of My Grandfather’s an Immigrant, and So Is Yours