A whole book's worth of 100-proof cautionary tales. Smashed
offers a mortifyingly credible story of smart young
women doing stupid things…Alcohol abuse [may have]
plagued [Koren's] life, but it has jump-started her
career.” -- Janet Maslin, The
New York Times .
“Smashed may be one of the best accounts of addiction,
let alone the college experience, or even what it means
to be an average teenage girl in America…While Smashed boasts
important insight and information, this fine young
writer's greatest gift is her gripping, vivid storytelling.” -- Entertainment
Weekly
“This raw, eye-opening memoir will deepen readers'
understanding of American culture and perhaps their
own lives.” - Booklist
"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. (Around one-third of kids on campus drink
like alcoholics, estimates claim.) 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 and Cherry
“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 was a binge drinker, using alcohol
to mask the anger and sadness of her adolescence. But
this stand-out memoir goes beyond the story of those
wasted years. Cautionary tale, yes, but it reads
like a thriller.” -- Glamour
“Harrowing…Somewhere along the line, [Koren] learned
to tell a riveting story.” -- The
Boston Globe
“Blackouts, hangovers, booze-fueled shenanigans, and
self-hatred mine familiar territory, but [Koren's]
poetic language and activist agenda move Smashed beyond
the typical drunk's memoir.” -- The
Village Voice
“It is a testament to Zailckas' hard, fast, clever
writing that Smashed grips from beginning
to end. Her story is more than just a good yarn
or cautionary tale. Zailckas' neat dissection
of the alcohol and advertising industries' talent for
locating and preying on a demographic's weakness go
far in explaining the binge-drinking phenomenon.” - The
Guardian UK
“A smart and scathing account of American hypocrisy,
as well as a lament for the prolonged period of earned
helplessness we call adolescence…It is well and fiercely
written, a stinging attack on the social pieties a
feel-good culture uses to sustain itself.” --
Hilary Mantel, The Sunday Telegraph
UK
Every parent should thank Koren Zailckas. Smashed is unflinchingly
honest about the role alcohol plays in girls'
relationships, choices, and self-esteem. Zailckas'
writing is exhilarating. Smashed burns
the page with the kind of insight that belongs to women
far beyond her years, and the truth about girls
and alcohol that has never been told like this. For
anyone who has ever stared at her daughter's
back, or closed door, and wondered what might
really be going on when she goes out, here is
what you need to know. -- Rachel Simmons , Odd
Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in
Girls .
“Koren Zailckas's story is raw and terrifying. Every daughter's
mother should read this book.” -- Martha Tod
Dudman , author of Augusta, Gone
“A well-written and jarring memoir, Smashed blows to
smithereens the myth that alcohol is the “safe drug”
in young people's lives. Koren Zailckas
puts a personal face on the leading drug problem
among our youth, and shows the side of teen
drinking that won't appear in a beer ad.” -- David
Jernigan Ph.D ., Center on Alcohol
Marketing and Youth
"In Smashed, Koren Zailckas gives us a wise and sometimes
harrowing narrative of teenage alcohol abuse. She
is unafraid to take a cold hard look at her own benders
and blackouts, and does so with disturbing precision.
Just as importantly, she shows the context: a
culture of tolerance and even encouragement that abets
the flowering of young women into young drunks." -- Elisabeth Eaves, author
of Bare |
