Originally published in 1978, Sweet Adversity is two novels in one. Author Donald Newlove edited his critically acclaimed novels of jazz-playing alcoholic Siamese twins, Leo & Theodore (1972) and The Drunks (1974), into a single volume for the release, explaining in his Author's Note that "the story loses scope and focus when halved into two books." Further, he stated that his original texts were "forever CANCELLED and do not represent my final thoughts about my twins."

The New York Times called Leo & Theodore "One of the most desperately funny books we've been given in a long time." And, of The Drunks, The New Yorker wrote, "A dazzling highwire act ... the sheer inventiveness and strength of his writing turn risk into triumph, drunken monologues into subtle satire, A.A. meetings into riveting dramas, and what in another writer might be bathos into brilliant comedy ... probably the most clear-eyed and moving--and certainly one of the most honest--books ever written about alcoholics."