Novel

The End of Drunkenness

Susan Cheever mourns the passing of the social alcoholic.

Where have all the fun drunks gone? In a lovely column, Susan Cheever recalls the guilty pleasure of watching dinner party guests get sloshed. "For us sober people there is a kind of drunkenfreude to watching others embarrass themselves, mangle their words and do things they will regret in the morning—if they even remember them in the morning." For Cheever, this kind of display also serves as a useful warning. "For me, the psychology is often in reverse. I learn from seeing what I don't want and avoiding it, rather than from seeing what I do want and aspiring to it." These days, she finds, partygoers in New York are a straight laced bunch. "Everyone comes on time, behaves well, drinks a little wine, eats a few tiny canapés, and leaves on time. They all still drink, but no one gets drunk anymore. Neither do they smoke. What on earth has happened?"