Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood by Koren ZailckasMy review
So far, there are a couple of reasons I really like Smashed. (I'm only 30+ pages in, so bear with me.) First, she's exactly my age, so when she's talking about things that happend in highschool, etc, it's kind of fun to see the social parallels, but secondly,she's from New England. I'm more than a little obsessed with all things New England since I'm a transplant. (I've watched The Departed and the Dennis Lehane movies more times that I can count). Her bio says she grew up in the 'suburbs of Boston', but when she's talking about a girl who goes to her regional high school andsays "Billie lives in the bordering town of Clinton..." I gasped in excitement, because that's just up the road!
It's a bio that I'm hoping doesn't turn out to be bogus like that of James Frey.
From the inside flap:
"Koren's story is that of thousands of girls like her who are notalcoholics-yet-but who routinely use booze as a shortcut to courage, asstand-in for good judgement, and a bludgeon for shyness.
A crucial book for any young woman who grew up under the allure of booze, orfor anyone who is concerned about someone locked in a pattern of dangerousdrinking, *Smashed* is eye-opening, wise, utterly gripping and destined tobecome a classic."
I wanted to read it before sending it off to my 15 year-old niece as a'cautionary tale' (yep, I'm *that* aunt) and have found that it's really good, frank, and I think that most parents would benefit from reading it even if your kids aren't there yet.
She says in her preface "I grew up in the Northeast, a white, middle-class teenager among other white, middle-class teenagers, which plunks me down in one of the highestdemographics of underage drinkers..." and...
"I am fourteen, which is the norm these days, when the mean age of the firstdrink for girls is less than thirteen years old." *
*Devon Jersild, *Happy Hours; Alcohol in a Woman's Life, 96.
Even though the 'times are different' it hasn't been all THAT long since I was in high school, but I feel like I've forgotten a lot of the nuance. Oh yeah, and I never drank in high school.
I'll post more when I finish the book...
1 comment:
Yeah, I think the author is from Berlin. I got like that when I read Aerosmith's autobiography "Walk this Way,", when it said that that they used to party at the warehouse at 55Pond Street, Waltham. That was literally a stone's throw from my old job!
I wasn't crazy about the book, there was a lot about it that I didn't like. I'm definitely interested in hearing your final review!
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