Summary

Jamison opens Chapter One, "Wonder," by reflecting upon her earliest memories of drinking alcohol. Jamison recalls the first time she ever felt the "buzz." She was twelve years old. She loved it. She felt “initiated, aglow” (1). She had no idea drinking could feel this good. Jamison takes us through the years as she drinks for the first time with friends, with a boy in high school, and her first blackout in college. Eventually, she traces her addiction back to her time in Iowa City when she received her MFA in Fiction. She sees this as the time in her life when the drinking became more important and dramatic, "encompassing and inevitable" (6). During these two years, drinking transformed from a social activity to a daily relief. It became the part of her day when being in her body was okay, and she got to experience...