AA

Alcoholics Anonymous — with Narcotics Anonymous (NA) and "the NA-splinter Cocaine Anonymous" (p. 707) — the recovery fellowships whose Boston culture the novel documents at near-ethnographic length: the Groups (White Flag, Advanced Basics, Freeway Access), Commitments, the Crocodiles, the slogans, the Higher Power (see those entries). The fellowships are not interchangeable — Gately "personally is not hot on NA: so many relapses and un-humble returns" (p. 277).