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Blind Drunk: A Sober Look at Our Boozy Culture
“Four drinks isn’t a binge. That’s après-ski on a Tuesday.”
Alcohol has informed every phase of Veronica Woodruff’s life. Growing up, her parents’ addiction took the family from wealth and privilege to destitution and eventual homelessness. Bartending provided the income she needed to complete her education and start her career as a scientist; drinking brought friendship, romance, and adventure. Booze lubricated the gears of her professional and personal life for decades.
Combining research with memoir, Veronica charts the evolution of drinking culture in North America, from the morality-based lens that led to Prohibition to the science-based approach that underlies today’s sober curious movement.
Alcohol has informed every phase of Veronica Woodruff’s life. Growing up, her parents’ addiction took the family from wealth and privilege to destitution and eventual homelessness. Bartending provided the income she needed to complete her education and start her career as a scientist; drinking brought friendship, romance, and adventure. Booze lubricated the gears of her professional and personal life for decades.
Combining research with memoir, Veronica charts the evolution of drinking culture in North America, from the morality-based lens that led to Prohibition to the science-based approach that underlies today’s sober curious movement.
244 pages, Paperback
Published April 15, 2025
3 people are currently reading
26 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 3, 2025
Veronica Woodruff’s Blind Drunk is a courageous exploration of how alcohol has shaped families, careers, and social circles in both destructive and subtle ways. With unflinching honesty, she traces her own childhood in a household marked by wealth, persistent drinking, showing how normalized alcohol was in professional and personal settings.
What stands out most is Woodruff’s ability to move between intimate memoir and broader cultural commentary. She recounts moments of glamour and dysfunction with equal clarity—luxury parties, cocktails served with pride, but also the instability of growing up in a home shadowed by dependence. Alongside these vignettes, she brings in research, statistics, and references that ground her story in a larger conversation about society’s relationship with drinking. Readers are invited not just to observe her life but to reflect on their own habits and assumptions about alcohol.
Woodruff doesn’t preach abstinence nor demonize alcohol outright; instead, she presents it as a cultural thread that has both connected and damaged people for centuries. Her writing is deeply accessible, combining academic rigor with storytelling that keeps the reader engaged.
What stands out most is Woodruff’s ability to move between intimate memoir and broader cultural commentary. She recounts moments of glamour and dysfunction with equal clarity—luxury parties, cocktails served with pride, but also the instability of growing up in a home shadowed by dependence. Alongside these vignettes, she brings in research, statistics, and references that ground her story in a larger conversation about society’s relationship with drinking. Readers are invited not just to observe her life but to reflect on their own habits and assumptions about alcohol.
Woodruff doesn’t preach abstinence nor demonize alcohol outright; instead, she presents it as a cultural thread that has both connected and damaged people for centuries. Her writing is deeply accessible, combining academic rigor with storytelling that keeps the reader engaged.
July 26, 2025
Brutally honest and brave. Thought provoking and non judgmental. Highly recommend.
September 3, 2025
Veronica Woodruff’s Blind Drunk is part memoir, part cultural study, and entirely compelling. She charts her journey from a childhood surrounded by luxury and instability, through years in the hospitality industry, to a hard-earned life of sobriety. Along the way, she paints a striking portrait of how alcohol permeates nearly every aspect of modern life—from corporate boardrooms to family dinners, from religious events to neighborhood barbecues.
Alcohol is presented as destructive and enabling, glamorous and toxic, liberating and imprisoning. Woodruff does not offer easy answers but rather situates her experience within a web of history, advertising, and social norms. By layering research with personal anecdotes, she demonstrates that drinking culture cannot be reduced to willpower or weakness; it is a collective inheritance that shapes choices and consequences.
The book deserves high praise for its accessibility and impact. Despite tackling weighty topics like addiction, mental health, and family trauma, Woodruff writes with clarity and compassion. Her prose is engaging, her narrative structure inventive, and her insights strikingly relevant in an age where many are reconsidering their relationship with alcohol. Blind Drunk is both a sobering reflection and a hopeful guide, offering readers the tools to question, evaluate, and perhaps even change their own habits.
Alcohol is presented as destructive and enabling, glamorous and toxic, liberating and imprisoning. Woodruff does not offer easy answers but rather situates her experience within a web of history, advertising, and social norms. By layering research with personal anecdotes, she demonstrates that drinking culture cannot be reduced to willpower or weakness; it is a collective inheritance that shapes choices and consequences.
The book deserves high praise for its accessibility and impact. Despite tackling weighty topics like addiction, mental health, and family trauma, Woodruff writes with clarity and compassion. Her prose is engaging, her narrative structure inventive, and her insights strikingly relevant in an age where many are reconsidering their relationship with alcohol. Blind Drunk is both a sobering reflection and a hopeful guide, offering readers the tools to question, evaluate, and perhaps even change their own habits.
September 3, 2025
In Blind Drunk, Veronica Woodruff tackles the complicated legacy of alcohol with a mix of sharp cultural critique and heartfelt memoir. From scenes of childhood innocence punctuated by cocktails mixed at her father’s request, to high-powered business lunches where drinking was synonymous with success, the narrative shows how pervasive alcohol is across generations and classes. Her stories are vivid, revealing how deeply alcohol can shape identity, relationships, and self-worth.
The structure of the book, organized around specific drinks like martinis, champagne, and gin, is particularly effective. Each chapter becomes a lens through which Woodruff examines not only her past but also the societal forces that normalize excess. It is an insightful and engaging read. Readers gain a sense of how drinks aren’t just beverages but cultural symbols, often tied to power, celebration, or escape.
The strength of this book lies in Woodruff’s fearless honesty. She allows herself to be vulnerable on the page, admitting to privilege, denial, and eventual dependence, while also celebrating her journey toward sobriety. It is not just a critique of alcohol culture but also a story of survival and growth.
The structure of the book, organized around specific drinks like martinis, champagne, and gin, is particularly effective. Each chapter becomes a lens through which Woodruff examines not only her past but also the societal forces that normalize excess. It is an insightful and engaging read. Readers gain a sense of how drinks aren’t just beverages but cultural symbols, often tied to power, celebration, or escape.
The strength of this book lies in Woodruff’s fearless honesty. She allows herself to be vulnerable on the page, admitting to privilege, denial, and eventual dependence, while also celebrating her journey toward sobriety. It is not just a critique of alcohol culture but also a story of survival and growth.
June 27, 2025
Blind Drunk is an exceptional blend of memoir and fact, and a wonderful commentary on alcohol in society. It prods the senses, teasing out memories of that exact song, or that exact food, or doing those exact things in eras of our life that we’d long forgotten.
Reading this book was rivoting: I loved the dichotomy that existed throughout Veronica’s life and I loved how openly she shared her experiences. I appreciated that it got me questioning the role of alcohol in our daily lives, and in our communities and our families.
It’s a gripping memoir of an incredible woman. The theme of alcohol in society is a topic of significant importance, and what better way to open the conversation and become educated than to be immersed in this well written, unbelievable life story. This book is exploding with fascination, familiarity and jaw dropping accounts of an unsuspecting girl next door. I could not wait to discuss it in detail with my friends, family and book club members.
Reading this book was rivoting: I loved the dichotomy that existed throughout Veronica’s life and I loved how openly she shared her experiences. I appreciated that it got me questioning the role of alcohol in our daily lives, and in our communities and our families.
It’s a gripping memoir of an incredible woman. The theme of alcohol in society is a topic of significant importance, and what better way to open the conversation and become educated than to be immersed in this well written, unbelievable life story. This book is exploding with fascination, familiarity and jaw dropping accounts of an unsuspecting girl next door. I could not wait to discuss it in detail with my friends, family and book club members.
September 5, 2025
Memoirs are certainly having a moment, something I can attest to, with three of my four reviews being memoirs. Blind Drink by Veronica Woodruff is an engrossing personalized account of a lifelong relationship with alcohol. The author details the role alcohol played from childhood into adulthood, starting with the impact of growing up in an alcoholic family, and finishing with the struggle to achieve and maintain sobriety. Alongside the personalized account, the author skillfully weaves historical and current statistics and factoids about alcohol consumption in North American culture into the narrative. Rather than adopting a judgmental, born-again tone, the memoir is a captivating riches-to-rags-to-equilibrium story that takes the reader from earliest memories to the present day, keeping its focus without segueing into the minutiae of life.
May 27, 2025
Absolutely captivating—couldn't put it down!
I loved this book. Veronica had me completely immersed in the story—her characters, especially her family, felt so real and relatable. I honestly couldn’t believe this all happened in Canada! The story is both gripping and emotional, and I kept thinking it would make an incredible movie.
On top of the storytelling, the book is packed with thoughtful insights and eye-opening facts about drinking culture. As someone working in the non-alcoholic space, I found it incredibly relevant and timely. I’m buying a copy for my entire team.
Highly recommend—equal parts shocking, powerful, and inspiring.
I loved this book. Veronica had me completely immersed in the story—her characters, especially her family, felt so real and relatable. I honestly couldn’t believe this all happened in Canada! The story is both gripping and emotional, and I kept thinking it would make an incredible movie.
On top of the storytelling, the book is packed with thoughtful insights and eye-opening facts about drinking culture. As someone working in the non-alcoholic space, I found it incredibly relevant and timely. I’m buying a copy for my entire team.
Highly recommend—equal parts shocking, powerful, and inspiring.
June 9, 2025
Wow! I did not expect to be so engrossed in this book. I read it in a weekend. It is a fabulous mix of a personal alcohol journey and research behind alcohol consumption in our culture. With changing attitudes and approaches to drinking alcohol over the decades it leaves you wondering what your own personal journey with alcohol has been. While the author travels from Ontario, Whistler is the perfect backdrop as a party, transient town to tune into the realities of drinking and its effects on people in their everyday lives (past and present).
Veronica- you nailed it, what a debut. Please continue to write!
Veronica- you nailed it, what a debut. Please continue to write!
November 9, 2025
This book was about 85% personal memoir and 15% information about the societal effects of alcohol. It was largely about Veronica's family's fall from community respect and financial success to destruction of their health, loss of public and self-respect, and loss of all financial resources. Even as Veronica moved west to the ski & mountain bike resort of Whistler BC, partly to escape the disaster and embarrassment of her parents, she was caught up in the pervasive drinking culture, and she struggled against the alcohol headwinds herself. She shared some statistics, scientific information, and general information about alcohol's effects on society, but this was largely a personal story.
August 17, 2025
Amazing. Not many people can consistently question the world they are in long enough to successfully peak around the curtain and see it for what it is. Veronica accomplishes this in Blind Drunk, which is hard to put down, easy to read, and deals with a difficult topic of which a lot of people are unaware.
October 19, 2025
This book is not just about alcohol - it’s an amazing true story of a woman’s life, where she is the star and alcohol is the supporting actor. It’s raw, honest, funny, and interesting. Easy to read and informative all at the same time. Highly recommend.
June 13, 2025
Great book. Couldn’t put it down. Both relatable and educational.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews