Born out of a popular blog of the same name, Drinking Diaries is a multifarious collection of essays by women about their relationships with alcohol. Leah Odze Epstein and Caren Osten Gerszberg have created a diverse, intimate and nonjudgmental anthology that is by turns funny, illuminating and often heartbreakingly honest.
The essays are organized into themed sections--including "Girlhood," "Culture" and "Revelations"--from an admirable crop of writers who range from active alcoholics to stern teetotalers. Elissa Schappell measures her marriage in drinks; Asra Nomani finds balance between her Muslim upbringing and adult independence; Ann Hood writes a loving tribute to her father and their bond over beer. Others navigate parenting and drinking, share stories of recovery (and relapse) and rhapsodize about the freedom and release of lowered inhibition.
But Drinking Diaries does not idealize its subject. Nearly every contributor mentions the profound impact of a parent's drinking on their own lives; many essays are devoted to it. The sobering specter of shame and addiction lurks throughout. "We secretly love to smash things we create, including ourselves," Jane Friedman writes. "I admit to having used alcohol with this intention--to give myself permission to delve into the darkness and come out with the dawn holding a fresh view."
Drinking Diaries may give you a satisfying sense of solidarity rather than an entirely "fresh view," but it certainly will provide a reflection on the potent duality of alcohol's seductive and destructive powers. --Hannah Calkins, blogger at Unpunished Vice