Smashed-Independent Reading

“Literature is where I go to explore the highest and lowest places in human society and in the human spirit, where I hope to find not absolute truth but the truth of the tale, of the imagination and of the heart.” – Salman Rushdie. The book Smashed, by Koren Zailckas, is the story of a girl who gets through life with alcohol. In the book, she doesn’t necessarily talk badly about alcoholism, and she also does not rave about it. Many girls would be able to relate to this book for a number of reasons, including the fact that for many, it hits terribly close to home. This book shows how one girl faced her everyday problems, with alcohol, although they are problems that everyone faces. Although the book, Smashed, may not be one hundred percent accurate, through tremendous detail and believability this girl’s story come alive to the reader, making you feel her pain and sorrow, as well as her awkwardness and difficulty growing up.
For example, on page 51, Koren is talking about how there is a “glass shield around my heart, the type of protective barrier that says IN CASE OF EMERGENCY, BREAK GLASS. Apple brandy put its fist through my isolation. I let reticence break apart, I vowed to no longer be as emotionally delicate as spun crystal.”. This quote tells you how emotionally unsound this young girl is, and how she is already turning to alcohol for some sort of release, or even relief. Throughout the novel, although the girl is always turning to alcohol for help, it shows that people can function and survive, some might just need a little help, and some are just fighting themselves.
The greatest conflict in this story is the woman verses herself. Throughout the whole story, Koren is talking about how alcohol makes her feel, either some other emotion that she isn’t really experiencing, or how she needs alcohol to be able to function. All in all, by her telling herself this, she is just, making her problem grow larger and larger everyday. The author uses many analogies in this book, such as pg 158 “Of course, Coors isn’t crank or coke or crack. And Heineken isn’t heroin. And vodka isn’t Valium, And nothing that’s mixed with cranberry juice will score you the respect with the folks who cop drugs in the public bathroom in Tompkins Square Park. But don’t tell that to my brain because when I’m drunk, it purrs with the ecstasy of being thoroughly high…”. She continues from there with some more analogies, under the same basic idea, of alcohol being her drug.
The main character in this novel goes from being somewhat of a troubled teen, having to have her stomach pumped when she was sixteen, to dancing on the fine line between being a sorority girl at a party school, and being a full-fledged alcoholic.
Koren felt as though she needed alcohol to feel all emotions, As though no man would even give her a second look with out at least being buzzed. This was her harsh reality. She had lead herself to believe that in order to be a happy, functioning, well liked, enjoyable person, she had to be under the influence. The dialogue also plays a huge role in this book, because it is in first person. This makes it seem as though you are reading into her mind and not out of her mouth, making it a much more enjoyable read. The theme of Smashed, is not so much what not to do, and what is bad for you, it is more to help you find your real self, without of the help of any drug, alcohol or person.
Overall, the book is a great eye-opening success to the experiences of other people. It showed all aspects of life, the ups and downs, and the ins and outs. Everyone has problems, some are much more apparent than others. Some people deal with there problems through friends and family, while some just turn to something that makes it all seem to go away. This book definitely “explored the highest and lowest places in human society”- Salman Rushdie, while helping one to find oneself.