Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood is Koren Zailckas's account of life as an alcoholic. He traces his life from his first drink, when he was fourteen, to his last, at twenty-two; Shattered chronicles of Zailckas' struggle with alcohol abuse, in an attempt to explain the phenomenon of binge eating plaguing young Americans. When Koren was fourteen, her friend Natalie found a bottle of whiskey in Natalie's parents' cabin. This would be his first experience, among many, with alcohol. Later that day she and Natalie went to a birthday party; they took plastic bottles of apple juice and filled them with Southern Comfort whiskey for the party. They ended up sharing it with most of the people there. This revealed that he was drinking with all his friends. The next year in high school he didn't have many friends. One of the few people who enjoyed his company was a girl named Billie. It was with Billie that she got drunk for the first time. It was Halloween. He later wrote to his pen pal, including this experience in his letter. His pen pal didn't appreciate the fact that Koren had been drinking. She replied, "Koren, I received your letter. By 'destroyed' I can only assume that you meant that you were drunk, which is not only not nice, it's disgusting, as well as the fact that you thought I was interested in you heard about it .Do you have any idea how many people die every year from drunk driving? will you graduate from high school at least two people in your class will be dead? Do you really want to risk being... halfway there... with my first blackout, or my first drunken fall, or my first blowjob to my stomach. But these occurred at home or at college, where my drinking felt isolated and I had the illusion of safety." It was after this incident that Koren. he knew that drinking was significantly affecting his life. So he wrote to a distant addiction counselor. He said she was an "alcohol abuser," not an alcoholic. This means it can stop at any time. However, he recommended the twelve-step program with Alcoholics Anonymous. Even after all this, Koren continued to drink for a while because he felt he needed it to socialize with people. In the end there seems to be no real moral or lesson to be imparted. be learned. She wasn't really a drug addict; she simply liked to drink. No long recovery, no epiphany. No treatment, no withdrawal problems. No lasting health problems. No real permanent problems in the end.