Smashed

Growing Up A Drunk Girl

Koren Zailckas

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Paperback

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English

Ebury Press
01 March 2006

Biography; Biography: general; Autobiography: general; Illness & addiction: social aspects

A beautifully written and deeply moving account of an adolescence shaped by alcohol - already a bestseller in hardback

The day Koren turned fourteen she tasted alcohol for the first time. At fifteen she was piecing together forgotten fragments of drink, men and misplaced clothes. At sixteen she was being carried through hospital doors unconscious. And so it began...

Brought up by loving parents in a stable middle-class home, Koren was a sweet and altogether normal child. Yet from her mid-teens until her early twenties, she thought nothing of regularly drinking herself into a state of amnesia. Alcohol became her safeguard and prop, providing her with a self-confidence she couldn't otherwise feel. And whilst drinking to excess was perfectly acceptable, even actively encouraged, amongst her friends, it quickly reached a destructive monotony that bordered on dependency.

It took a number of terrifying incidents - from stumbling home alone covered in vomit to waking up naked in bed unsure of whether she had lost her virginity - before Koren could finally say to herself enough was enough and seek help for her problem.

Smashed is the shocking but all-too-recognisable story of a young woman coming of age within a society that finds it easier to turn a blind eye to binge-drinking than address the problem head on. Beautifully written and brutally honest, compelling without preaching, this is a book that demands to be read.

By: Koren Zailckas
Imprint: Ebury Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: New edition
Dimensions: Height: 196mm, Width: 126mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 25g
ISBN: 9780091905606
ISBN 10: 0091905605
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 01 March 2006
Audience: General/trade , Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , ELT Advanced , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Koren Zailckas grew up in the suburbs of Boston and whilst at Syracuse University was the subject of a Time magazine article about women and binge-drinking. She now lives in New York City.

Reviews for Smashed: Growing Up A Drunk Girl

'Beautifully written, oddly affecting...' - India Knight, The Sunday Times. 'One of the most original and brutally honest memoirs I've read in a long while. Koren is a writer's writer - and she wipes the floor with any of her contemporaries. Smashed is definitely my find of the year.' - Helen Walsh, author of Brass. 'Koren Zailckas chronicles, in detail both grim and marvelous, the hair-raising drunkalogue that so many college kids go through without becoming full-fledged drunks. But the wit and insight rampant in the prose of Smashed raises the book far above the issue of young drinking. Zailckas has captured what's unfortunately become a quintessential American girlhood.' - Mary Karr, author of The Liar's Club