Now 24, the first-time author examines her own alcohol abuse as a teen, starting from her first drink at 14 and moving into binge drinking, a trip to the hospital, and the depression and other problems that impacted her life until she finally was able to right herself.
Critic Reviews
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Outstanding
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Entertainment Weekly Karen Valby
While Smashed boasts important insight and information, this fine young writer's greatest gift is her gripping, vivid story-telling.
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Outstanding
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Kirkus Reviews
An astonishingly revealing debut. [1 Nov 2004, p.1042]
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Outstanding
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Publishers Weekly
Her book is deeply moving, written in poetic, nuanced prose that never obscures fine dangerous troths she seeks to reveal. [6 Dec 2004, p.50]
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Favorable
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Booklist Gillian Engberg
This raw, eye-opening memoir will deepen readers' understanding of American culture and perhaps their own lives. [15 Dec 2004, p.698]
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Favorable
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Boston Globe Barbara Fisher
Somewhere along the line, she learned to tell a riveting story.
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Favorable
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Daily Telegraph Hilary Mantel
Smashed is over-long, and by the nature of its subject, a little repetitious - but it is well and fiercely written, a stinging attack on the social pieties which a feel-good culture uses to sustain itself.
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Favorable
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The New York Times Janet Maslin
Her memoir offers a mortifyingly credible story of smart young women doing stuporous things.
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Favorable
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Village Voice Rachel Kramer Bussel
Blackouts, hangovers, booze-fueled shenanigans, and self-hatred mine familiar territory, but her poetic language and activist agenda move Smashed beyond the typical drunk's memoir.
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Favorable
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The Guardian Lucy Mangan
It is a testament to Zailckas's hard, fast, clever writing that Smashed does grip from beginning to end.
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Mixed
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Los Angeles Times Karen Stabiner
"Smashed" too often feels like a travelogue, each horrific adventure tinged with a bit of gee-whiz at the thrill of it all. Like a fine wine... this story would have benefited from the passage of time. [29 May 2005]
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Mixed
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The Nation Suzy Hansen
Shame, not the joy of newfound sobriety, drives her storytelling more than anything else, and through that muddled lens, things like humor and perspective get lost too.
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Unfavorable
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Daily Telegraph Mary Wakefield
Zailckas's mission is to convince the young that it's not cool to "use alcohol", and of course she's absolutely right, but she might have done an even better job of deterring the young if she'd cut the moralising and the metaphors and concentrated instead on a really good description of a skull-crushing hangover.
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Unfavorable
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The New Republic Sacha Zimmerman
Smashed is little more than it seems at first blush: the bland, self-important coming-of-age of a 24-year-old ex-sorority cheerleader chick.
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