Fury: A Memoir Book

The author of the iconic New York Times bestseller Smashed undertakes a quest to confront her own anger.

In the years following the publication of her landmark memoir, Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood, Koren Zailckas stays sober and relegates binge drinking to her past. But a psychological legacy of repression lingers-her sobriety is a loose surface layer atop a hard- packed, unacknowledged rage that wreaks havoc on Koren emotionally and professionally. When a failed relationship leads Koren back to her childhood home, she sinks into emotional crisis-writer's block, depression, anxiety. Only when she begins to apply her research on a book about anger to the turmoil of her own life does she learn what denial has cost her. The result is a blisteringly honest chronicle of the consequences of anger displaced and the balm of anger discovered. Readers who recognized themselves or someone they love in the pages of Smashed will identify with Koren's life-altering exploration and the necessity of exposing anger's origins in order to flourish in love and life as an adult. Combining sophisticated sociological research with a dramatic and deeply personal story that grapples boldly with identity and family, Fury is a dazzling work by a young writer at the height of her powers that is certain to touch a cultural nerve.

The Barnes & Noble Review

While the book could end with a group hug, thankfully it doesn't. Zalickas acknowledges the storm of emotion and misunderstanding that sits beneath any domestic surface, and this is refreshing. There is no forgiveness or clearing of the air, despite her attempts at reconciliation. The ultimate revelation, ushered in by the birth of her daughter, is about tolerance. Zalickas vows that her child "will be free of the legacy of anger, repression, narcissism, self-sabotage, and abandonment" that she felt. "I want to have the presence of mind to see her not as a version of my grandmother, my mother, or myself, but rather for the person she inherently is and will be." Though this may be easier said than done, Zalickas has ended her journey with wisdom that feels real -- and more importantly, earned.