Friday, October 05, 2007

Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood by Koren Zailckas

Started: 9/26/07
Finished: 10/1/07
Year: 2005
Pages: 339
Genre: Autobiographical
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: booksfree.com
Blurb (from back cover): "The summer Koren Zailckas turns fourteen she is standing in the kitchen of her best friend Natalie's house, dripping wet after a swim in the lake. With a sly grin, Natalie emerges from a cupboard holding a bottle of Southern Comfort. With one stiff sip, Zailckas is initiated into the world of drinking. From then on, she will drink faithfully, fanatically. In high school, her experimentation will lead to a stomach pumping at age sixteen. In college, her excess will give way to a pattern of self-poisoning that will grow more destructive with each year. At age twenty-two, Zailckas will wake up in an unfamiliar apartment in New York City, elbow her friend who is passed out next to her, and ask, 'Where are we?' Smashed is a sober look at how she got there and, after years of blackouts and smashups, what it took for her to realize she had to stop drinking."
Opinion: A strong look into a different form of alcohol abuse-one that isn't really looked at and should be. This should be a must read for pre-teens and parents

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