Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood (alkuperäinen julkaisuvuosi 2005; vuoden 2006 painos)

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Zailckas takes us on a wild ride from excess and hedonism to anger and abstinence. While I recognize that she is trying to study the sociology of alcohol use (and abuse) among women, she instead paints a sad portrait that strangely glorifies her college years. Zailckas has eulogized her heavy drinking as a college student and decides after graduating that the only response for a woman in her early twenties is to abstain altogether and instead to direct the energy that was previously spent on drinking into anger toward the alcohol industry as a whole and the "drinking culture" of the middle class. Again and again, Zailckas assures us that she "is not an alcoholic," which undermines her message, and pats herself on the back for having her last drink at twnety-two.

What is the message here? Zailckas' memoir is not particularly well-written and her thesis is confused at best. Yes, underage drinking is a problem, rape culture is a problem, white male corporate oppression is a problem, but Zailckas' problems are a result of her victimized mentality. For a better organized memoir of a drinking woman, please see Caroline Knapp's "[b:Drinking: A Love Story|73965|Drinking A Love Story|Caroline Knapp|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388202057s/73965.jpg|1045053]." ( )

Booktalk: [Cite teen stats on drinking.] Koren's first taste of alcohol came when she was 14 and her friend got her to try Southern Comfort. At 16 Koren had her first blackout and her stomach pumped. In college, Koren and her friends drank almost daily at a regular string of fraternity and sorority parties, or by getting into bars with fake ID's. Tequila shots, vodka, beer--you name it, Koren drank it. She was sick and hungover a lot of the time, even in class, and it was never pretty. (Read p242 Through the fog--every time I threw up.) Now after six years of drinking, Koren is depressed and bored by it. She realizes that drinking was the easiest way to avoid dealing with her problems. Now she's got to find her way out from behind the bottle or spend the rest of her life SMASHED.

2015, owned, non-fiction ( )

I actually only made it halfway through before I put the book down. I actually should have known from the tone of the Introduction that I might not like it but the opening few chapters were engaging so I read on. The statistical information (complete with footnotes) folded into the narrative was jarring. I could find little empathy for her character and in fact lost all connection when this self-described "loner and misfit" inexplicably becomes a cheerleader. I'm honestly glad that Koren has found her way to the other side of her "drunken girlhood" but I just didn't care enough to see her through her entire journey. ( )