Review: Girly Drinks
I was impressed by Mallory O’Meara’s earlier history on Milicent Patrick who designed the Creature From the Black Lagoon effects. This is a more straightforward history of women’s role in American drinking history and culture. It’s still very good.
O’Meara does an excellent job addressing what could be a pretty light topic. She tracks the history of people drinking alcohol from prehistory to modern America. That history, as most sources relate it, leaves women out of it, which she sets out to correct. It also reflects women’s role in society – because drinking is important to society – and O’Maera makes sure you know it.
Tone and style really matters here. The book has the citations one hopes for in a history, even though the documents for events in bars and distilleries can be dicey to find. Having the goods, O’Maera adopts a conversational tone in delivery. When she writes about the drama between the players at the center of the emerging Tiki Bar movement, it sounds like a story you might hear at a party. But when you get to that moment when you wonder “how does she know that?” or “is that really true,” well, there are citations.
Overall this is a well researched book about an interesting and fun topic that may just tell you about some bigger things, too.
Strongly Recommended.