Smashed (Claudia Bustamante)

Title: Smashed
Author: Koren Zailckas
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Pages: 338

Found: It was my sister’s book.

Summary: Koren Zailckas’ autobiography is the tale of her life so far. Koren Zailckas was just fourteen years old, when she first experimented with alcohol. When she was fifteen, her friend was most likely raped while drunk at a frat house. While at a party in the woods, Koren experiences her first of too many blackouts and at nineteen, she suffered through a sexual encounter because she had been blacked out. She has gone through friends and friends, losing many, gaining none. Years later, Koren realizes how her alcoholism is hurting her and everyone around her. She finally decides to get help, and it is without doubt for the better. Koren now twenty-four, takes you through her encounters as a young girl abusing alcohol growing up.

Audience: The audience for the book would be for more mature high school students because there are situations that only they would understand. Everyone should read this because there is a great lesson within the story.

Style: The author’s style of writing is very straightforward and easy to understand. Koren Zailckas’ writing is descriptive, and the reader is able to envision the scene as it is happening in the story.“Inside, I find Natalie in an armchair, looking wilted. She is conscious, but barely. Her head is bowed forward and her eyes, rolled way back, divulge only the white,” (pg. 68).

Passages:
“I decide to tell a fraction of the truth. It will become something I will tell my parents in times of distress. I like to think of it as the-whole-truth-and-nothing-but-the-truth’s second cousin; they may not share all the same characteristics, but there is no denying they’re related,” (pg. 75).- I chose this quote from the book because I did not like how she didn’t tell her parents the whole story. This is because I thought if she told her parents the story; it would help her friend out. Also, I liked how the author put something witty and funny into something so serious, as lying to her parents.

“The life of a young drunk is not a continuous fall into the pit of abject alcohol abuse. It is a herky-jerky evolution. You slip, you trip, and you tumble into the habit of drinking when you are afraid, or enraged, or heartsick, and every so often, you hit a ledge from which you can see how deep into dependence you are,” (pg. 427).- This passage struck my attention because I have never been put in that position. I can’t imagine what it feels like to be an alcoholic, how hard it must be. I know it can make you irritable, causing mood swings and acting different than you normally would. I’ve also heard that drinking makes you forget your problems, thus making me understand,

“…you tumble into the habit of drinking when you are afraid, or enraged, or heartsick…”.“More than anything, I’ve had it with a world that has created a generation of women who are emotionally dependent on alcohol, and then demonizes us for out lack of feminine control,” (pg. 335)- I disagree with this quote because I am not emotionally dependent on alcohol. I’m independent with my emotions. I keep them to myself, and don’t drown my problems in alcohol. Not all women have this problem that Koren had, but this is why the passage struck me, because some women actually think that.

Response: I absolutely loved this book. It was meaningful, clever, and sad all at the same time. Once I starting reading it, I never put it down. I have never experienced anything like what happened in the book, but reading her autobiography made me feel connected to her in some way. Parts that really spoke to me were when Koren didn’t know she was having a sexual encounter because she was so drunk. Another part was when she finally decided to get help because I was so happy for her when she chooses to do so.