the turd-counter's Heineken ledger
In a different little notebook, the M.P. noted the date and time of each Heineken he consumed. He was the sort of person who equated incredibly careful record-keeping with control.
Context
The alcoholic household Gately grew up inside, drawn in one detail: a man who logged the date and time of every beer in a notebook, mistaking meticulous record-keeping for control over the thing he was recording. It is the using mind's signature delusion — that counting the Heinekens is the same as governing them — the drink managed on paper by a man it plainly owned, in the home that made the child who would one day refuse the Demerol.