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| Plot Summary of Smashed |
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"Koren Zailckas details her love affair with alcohol in her autobiographical novel. Her first drink, at the age of 14, sends her in a downward spiral of loss and surrender . She begins sneaking behind her parents' backs, losing her close friends, and, by 16, ending up in the hospital to get her stomach pumped.
Alcohol serves as her vehicle through which to make friends, be more outgoing, and do the things she normally would be terrified to do. In college, her social life revolves completely around alcohol. She describes a series of parties, insignificant relationships, blackouts, and a variety of bars she frequents often. She reflects upon the hold alcohol has on her, and what it means to be a less-shy, less uptight version of herself. "
Pamela , Resident Scholar
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"Smashed: Story Of A Drunken Childhood is Koren Zailckas memoir on her abuse of alcohol from adolescence up to the age of twenty-three. Koren bluntly tells how she started drinking at fourteen and how it stunted her emotional growth, her failed relationships and even a date rape. Koren continued to drink all the way through her college years at Syracuse university up until she got her first job and apartment in NYC. Similar to "Dry" by Augusten Burroughs and Caroline Knapp's "Drinking: A love Story", Smashed is a cautionary tale on the powerful hold alcohol could have over a person."
Bobby Blades, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Smashed |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Kids growing up/acting up?
Yes
Kids:
- boozing
Phys disability/mental struggle?
Yes
Struggle with
- alcohol
Period of greatest activity?
- 1950+
Subject of Biography
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- journalist
- secretary
Age:
- 20's-30's
Eccentric/Mental
Yes
Eccentric:
- emotionally unstable
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Ethnicity
- White
Nationality
- American (!)
How sensitive is this person?
- sensitive to others' feelings
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 4 (a fair amount)
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
City?
Yes
City:
- New York
- Boston
Century:
- 1980's-Present
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- no torture/death
Book makes you feel?
- depressed
- thoughtful
Sex in book?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- rape/molest (yeech!)
- vague references
Lot of foul language?
Yes
Commentary on society?
Yes
Commentary on
- love/sex
- decency
- selfishness
- wicked men
Unusual Style:
- a lot of stream of consciousness
Writer's slant towards subject:
- somewhat unfavorable
- very unfavorable
Story of entire life, or part?
- story of nearly entire life
- story of set of events during life
Autobiography?
Yes
How much dialogue in bio?
- significantly more descript than dialog
A LOT of info about personal vices?
Yes
How much is philosophy rather than life story?
- 0-25% of book
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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