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An examination of the rising trend of alcohol abuse among women - in this case, high-achieving professional women - by a successful journalist and recovering alcoholic. Johnston alternates between her own story, the stories of other women, and her own research on women and substance abuse. Despite the limited view Johnston manages to shine a light on a dark aspect of modern perfectionist womanhood. Here Johnston describes the innocent start to her dependence, "...I was using wine to decompress, to ease into the second shift of the evening -- and so too were my friends, both the stay-at-home mothers and my professional peers. As many women discovered, a drink is a punctuation mark of sorts, between day and night."
This is a worthwhile addition to the growing body of women's drinking memoirs. I also highly recommend that you check out one of the finest memoirs in the genre, "Drinking: A Love Story" by the late Caroline Knapp. Johnston cites it as a title she returns to several times on her halting road to recovery.
