Customer Reviews

Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood

5 star:		(87)
4 star:		(45)
3 star:		(31)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(28)

 

 

This is a well-written, seriously scary book that will likely have many readers cringing when they read about the problems alcohol led to for Zailckas. As someone with a young daughter, I found it to be both a cautionary tale and an engrossing memoir. For anyone who has an alcoholic or binge drinker in their family, you'll be able to relate on some level. For me, it was interesting to hear about the experience from the perspective of a young woman.

The author writes lucidly and poetically about her past, showing the effects of her lifestyle without ever trying to invoke pity for anything that happened to her in the past. It makes one wonder how common her story, or at least certain elements of it, are to many young women.

Although the material is often heavy and depressing, this one will keep your attention. A terrific and frightening account.

I really, really, really wanted to like this book. the first 150-200pages were an engaging drunkalogue and then it was completely repetitious ("i drink too much, i am always hung over, i hate men, i isolate, i am so paranoid, i drink too much, did i mention i hate men?") She is so obviously an alcoholic that she really does a disservice to other young women (or their parents) reading this book b/c she leads one to believe that AA is not necessary (or even an option for help)unless you meet some kind of stringent genetic definition of what an alcoholic is. i suspect the *one* counselor she consulted (online, no less) that told her she is not genetically an alcoholic is somewhere kicking himself. she also never shows us what she wrote to him, so it is likley she manipulated her questions to him to get the answer she wanted - that she is simply an "abusive" drinker. if she was as schooled about alcoholism as she is about alcohol advertising, then she would see how obvious her alcoholism is. she never even attended one AA meeting, yet at the end of the book she marvels at the idea of talking to another problem drinker to make her feel better. totally laughable! had she actually gone to that meeting (instead of walking by it), she could have been talking to other women just like her all along - and learning how to manage the anger and resentment that she is still clearly carrying with her. and it is very sad to see that she only stopped drinking when she met a man. i would hate to see what happens to her if they should break-up.

so i have to repeat - how very sad that she has cut herself off from all the wonderful people (women) she could meet by attending AA and learn how to manage her - very obvious - drinking problem. she is still blaming everyone else (i.e. the alcohol industry) for her problems. to anyone reading this book that identifies with her and is at a loss as to what they should do - she is in denial about her problem and is what is known as a "dry drunk". those alcohol ads that demean women did not make her pick up a drink and cause her feelings of inferiority and isolation and paranoia, etc etc - she is a sick woman and needs to get some help. a good place to start is with the support of other people just like you/her - maybe go to a meeting and learn how to get your life back together again. you do not need to struggle on your own like she does or meet a man to get your sanity back. i am not saying AAis the only way, only suggesting that you not discount it the way she did.

In 'Smashed', Koren Zailckas examines her history with drinking in a frank and brutally honest manner. From the day she first experimented with alcohol at age 14 to the severe binge-drinking that defined her college years, she takes you on a journey of excess and provides the reasons for her escalating problem. The situations she gets into are dark (waking up naked in a man's bed with the suspicion that she had been the victim of date-rape, having her stomach pumped after passing out on a dock at age 16, etc.), making for a compelling read that is at once hard to put down and difficult to hear. Looking back, Zailckas can see the reasons for her drinking and does a decent job getting across some explanations that are hard to explain to anyone who hasn't felt the same way. The most interesting revelation in the book is that Zailckas is not actually an alcoholic, but a victim of alcohol abuse. When she reaches out to a counselor on the internet she discovers that she has none of the genetic characteristics that describe alcoholism. Zailckas' problem is that excess was encouraged to her in a society that more and more sees teen drinking as a rite of passage instead of the problem it is. Her depression and insecurity made her an easy target to lose control, and no one was able to see her problem for what it was. 'Smashed' exposes a new social problem that has not been acknowledged in the media so far, and Zailckas is to be commended for bringing it out for discussion.

I started reading this book because I recently concluded an increasingly rambunctious four years of partying at SU, and it sounded like it'd be interesting to read someone else's accounts of and insights into the same drunken stumbles I made countless times across campus hill. The real impact of the book set in when I realized how much it resonates with my own experiences, and how relevant it is because of that. Granted I'm a guy, was not in the greek system, have not been date-raped, and have not come anywhere near the levels of excess Zailckas describes. Even so, almost every episode she recounts runs in parallel with at least one or two of my own experiences, and judging by how commonplace the sight of un-hinged drunken students is at any college campus, I'm sure that this book could act as a near biography for a lot of people other than the author.

I read some critics who complained that this story didn't need to be written, since everyone knows that college kids drink, or since Koren Zailckas wasn't even in the running for "worst college drunkard" (I wondered if she would mention the frat boys who fought each other with billiards balls in socks my freshman/her senior year at SU, or the countless sirens every weekend as the paramedics pulled up to the latest case of alcohol poisoning). I kind of think that's what makes it so worthwhile though. Here is this universal american college experience that we all uncomfortably relate to, laid out for us to examine a bit more objectively than we could from any other perspective. We aren't meant to "feel sorry" for her, as so many reviewers appear to think. This is not some sappy, teary-eyed Reader's Digest nonsense, it is a critique of the easily accessible social binge-drinking scene, and she is using her own experiences, which she describes numerous time as not being unique, to theorize about the deeper aspects of the issue. I wasn't shocked or surprised by anything I read in "Smashed", that's not really the point. Ms Zailckas does a good job at digging deeply into every sequence of events, pulling out the painful facts of the matter that everybody knows but won't say, and thus cause one to cringe when they are explicitly put into words. It's easy to say stuff like "college is all about drinking, what else is new" but when the experience is presented this way you are forced to come to grips with it and think about it in a more introspective way.

I kept thinking of Tom Wolfe's last novel "I Am Charlotte Simmons", which was an exposé of sorts of the modern college experience. Tom Wolfe had a few fundamental flaws that undermined his entire novel however, whereas Koren Zailckas is able to nail the subject matter. Tom Wolfe failed primarily because he was attempting to write from, about, and to a generation that was removed from him by about fifty years. No matter how accurate his information was, any relevant commentary was neutralized by the fact that he, personally, had no grasp on what he was talking about, and it showed in his ham-handed attempts at emulating modern youth. Here we have unadulterated, nonfiction stories from only about four or five years ago, told firsthand. Koren Zailckas has the perspective to actually present some worthwhile insight on the subject, and through unflinching introspection and dissection of every stage of her drinking career, she is able to pull together an effective and thought-provoking narrative commentary.

Lots of reviews comment on the quality of the writing in Smashed. Writing-wise, this book is certainly not perfect, but come on, the author is twenty-four. If she were any older, the book would be that much less relevant. Pretty freaking good for a twenty-four year old, I say. From Tom Wolfe, veteran of journalism and cultural commentary, I expected much more than the clumsy butchering of pop culture that was "I Am Charlotte Simmons". Koren Zailckas' writing is fluid and interesting, she has a kind of poetic, rhythmic sense that makes the whole thing very easy to read. She is heavy-handed with the metaphors, but the tone of the prose rescues it from what could've been an overly cold, depressing, and didactic indictment of alcohol.

The book is obviously focussed on girls and young women, and their particular susceptibility to alcohol abuse, but I think it carries plenty of relevance beyond that demographic. I've seen and been in plenty of the situations she describes, enough that I can now consider them in a different light. I'd reccommend this book for anyone in high school or college , it gives you the objective assessment of alcohol that isn't really possible to achieve on your own when you're getting bombed at keggers and bars every chance you get. An engaging read, and a thoroughly accurate account of modern college society.

"Smashed" was an extremely difficult book to get through, but after sticking it out to the very end, I remained extremely disappointed that there was not more to it.

At some point during the book's conception, someone must have planted in Zailckas's head the idea that her story could become a defining tale of her generation. Apparently, she took it to heart. Pop culture references to the mid-1990's litter nearly every paragraph of the first half of the book. If the narrator isn't listening to music by the Crash Test Dummies, she is making a Seinfeld reference, or comparing her having snuck out of her parents' house to the movie The Shawshank Redemption. A flavor of the times is nice, but the references are so frequent and blatant that it becomes furiously aggravating. When she manages to drop her Trivial Pursuit act, Zailckas constantly goes back to her other old-faithful approach - nearly clichéd metaphors.

However, the biggest fault of "Smashed" is in characterization. Supporting characters throughout the book are introduced and left behind with no consequence, no purpose. Not once does a single character stand out from the page and become important for anything other than simplistic symbolism - "The Childhood Friend of the Past," "the Ongoing College Romantic Interest." Characters who actually appear on a more frequent basis are given little description or basis to ever make them lifelike. Most tragic, however, is the fact that Zailckas's poor characterization is also applicable to herself, the narrator. In any story with a prominent anti-hero protagonist, it is extremely important that readers have some reason to want the main character to succeed. In other books that deal with substance abuse, such as James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces" or Burrough's "Junkie," intriguing pieces of the protagonists's personalities stream through the horrors of abuse - wit, cleverness, a soft spot for another character, compassion - qualities that even the most abstinent reader can be drawn to, leading the reader to care enough about the character that the obstacles faced seem even more horrible. "Smashed" offers none of that - it is simply a story that follows the narrator around to various bars and parties. The narrator does not seem to care what happens to her, and therefore, neither will the reader. We see nothing of the narrator to make us want her to succeed.

Bravo to Zailckas for writing on a serious subject that has become far too accepted in today's society. However, those noble intentions were not enough to make this a good book.

After having wanted to read this book since it came out, I finally got it and read it very quickly. Koren's a pretty decent writer which is good for her since it was the only thing that elevated this book from its pedestrian story. The tale itself is no different than tons of girls' I know college drinking experience. We called those girls alcoholics, by the way, even though Koren self-consciously asserts early in the book that she is not an alcoholic. I got the impression that Koren felt she had to make that distinction so that this wouldn't be just another alcoholic girl's story, but rather something that could be sensationalized: every college girl across the country is getting drunk four nights a week and passing out in random guys' beds!!! Oh my god, stop the presses!

While Koren's story is sad, there's not much about it that makes it unique. Furthermore, at 24 and two minutes into her recovery-- whoops, I mean "cessation"-- Koren isn't far enough past her drinking days to really have come to terms with it, which is probably why she comes across still very depressed and despondent, and the book comes to an abrupt, somewhat unresolved end.

If you are interested in reading a sensationalized story about an upper middle class white girl's drunken escapades, this is your book. If you are interested in reading a book about an alcoholic woman who is really being honest with herself, this book is not for you.

This is my story. And the story of many of my old high school and college friends, too. We drank for the same reasons Koren outlines, and some of us didn't stop. We teetered into motherhood, changing our brand from Budweiser to Kendal Jackson, disguising our behavior behind socially acceptable forms of socialization, like cocktail parties and high school reunions.

It's only been recently, now over the age of 40, that I have begun to unravel the role alcohol has played in my life. Koren's book has served to fuel this self-discovery, and somehow I don't think it's a coincidence that it's become the "right book at the right time."

Koren writes, "I've had it with a world that has created a generation of women who are emotionally dependent on alcohol, and then demonized us for our lack of femine control."

I have teenage daughters, and never before have I understood the role marketing now plays in the life of the average American girl. Even the most careful parent can't stem the flow of MTV's booze-ridden programming, which make heroes out of brain dead rock and rollers, and glorifies a week of mindless drinking in Cancun. The pressure girls have today to live up to some Paris-Hilton-pink-martini-life is daunting. My girls have learned that there are quick fixes to every sadness----plastic surgery, cosmopolitans and a new pair of high heel shoes.
Most young girls know what a red carpet is before they learn algebra.

I went to college in the 80's and it was no different then. This is an old story that repeats itself every September when a new freshman class rolls up in their parent's Volvos. Books like Koren's serve to illuminate the problems of girls with low self esteem, living in a pressure cooker to be someone they're not.

I am awed by this author for her keen perception, her wonderful prose and her courage to shine light on a problem that hides in the hems of a materialistic and hypocritical society. Any book that makes us look at ourselves as a culture deserves the highest accolades.

Smashed was an amazing book. it should be on the required reading list for many teens and young women. Alchoholism is becoming a bigger and bigger issue with young people today, and i believe it would be beneficial for many people to read, even just to give them a heads up about the reality of alchohol, or even help them to realize their own problem. Smashed opens the doors of a truly amazing mind, and at the same time a former alchoholic, this just goes to show that nobody is perfect, but by confronting your problem you not only help yourself, but others facing the same conflicts.

Koren is eloquent in her writing. This book serializes the brutal, but honest truth of teenage and college drinking. It illustrates just how caustic alcohol can be to the youth of today. It is a must read for anyone struggling with an alcohol problem within themselves or someone they know. A very creative and thought provoking book worth its weight in gold, to say the least . . .

Smashed caught me off guard. I found that there were many more similarities between my drinking and Koren's than there were differences. By some chance, Smashed came out during a time when I was not drinking. While months of abstinence had led me to some of my own conclusions, I must admit that Koren's own ruminations on the topic allowed me to better develop my own thoughts, and even to digress to other topics that I hadn't yet considered. Essentially, I have been so caught up in an alcohol culture that even when I removed myself from it in a literal sense, I remained very much immersed in the culture otherwise. Finally, as a male, I found Koren's perspective helpful in gaining some insight into the female drinking experience.

One of the book's greatest assets is perhaps its portrayal of changing thoughts and emotions that are apparently central to the college experience. I highly recommend Smashed.