Growing up in the New Jersey suburbs, you felt academic pressure. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Levy, who moved to Los Angeles in early 2020, will talk about her book and road to recovery at 7 p.m., January 18, at Skylight Books.

When the consequences became so negative and potentially dangerous, she finally re-evaluated her life and motives for drinking. While Levy frequently blacked out, she was able to function the next day, so in her mind, she didn’t have a problem. She drank to get drunk because that dulled her social anxiety. Just ask Levy, 33, who did plenty of partying to be liked and appear confident and happy. “Effortless perfection” – a term coined on the Duke University campus in 2013 – is a front that can have detrimental effects, especially on the mental health of young women. We were taught to make it look easy to succeed without bragging.” “Yes, we were at the top of our classes and industries,” writes Levy in her new memoir, “Drinking Games.” “But we wouldn’t be caught dead showing how much we cared, how exhausted we were, how hard we tried. In this intimate and darkly funny memoir, she stumbles through her twenties, explores the impact alcohol has on relationships and identity, and shows us how life’s messiest moments can end up being the most profound.After graduating from Brown University, Sarah Levy moved to New York City in 2012 and began socializing with high-achieving millennials like herself – accomplished, fit, smart, popular people who curated seemingly perfect lives on social media. Sarah takes us by the hand through her personal journey with blackouts, dating, relationships, wellness culture, startups, social media, friendship, and self-discovery.

It’s an examination of what our short-term choices about alcohol do to our long-term selves and how they challenge our ability to be vulnerable enough to discover what we really want in life.Ĭandid and dynamic, this book speaks to the all-consuming cycle of working hard, playing harder, and trying to look perfect while you’re at it. And only she could save herself.ĭrinking Games explores the role alcohol has in our formative years, and what it means to opt out of a culture completely enmeshed in drinking. But Sarah had a secret: her relationship with alcohol was becoming toxic. She was 28, living in New York City, working a great job, and socializing every weekend. On paper, Sarah Levy’s life was on track. Part memoir and part social critique, Drinking Games is about how one woman drank and lived- and how, for her, the last drink was just the beginning.

Sarah levy memoir