Smashed ... Koren Zailckas

Reviving Ophelia Redux ..

Earlier this year, Koren Zailckas published her chronicle of the years she spent abusing alcohol. She started drinking just before starting high school. She stopped the abuse after graduation from college and her first year in the work place as a professional writer.

Her book, ‘Smashed’ is a forthright account of the allure of alcohol and the ways in which teens can hide from the difficult years.

As an aside to her tale, she writes of her relationship with her parents, keeping them out of the loop and keeping life in order.

Zailckas says that “ … I decide to tell a fraction of the truth. It will become something I will tell my parents for years 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 physical characteristics, but there is no denying they’re related…” page 75.

This is an enormously detailed story of the other side of life that some teens enter into while traveling the high road of academic success and comportment. Zailckas attained success in school with grades and such but failed in the social maturation.