Wasted: Tales of a GenX Drunk

Prior to authoring Wasted, Judge was a journalist and freelance writer in Washington, D.C., briefly teaching at Georgetown University. He explained his writing process behind the work on Wasted, saying he wanted to create a frank and comedic book about alcoholism. He observed that authors of prior recovery coaching books took pity upon themselves, and he wanted to make a book devoid of complaining so as to appeal to Generation X.

Wasted was reviewed by several publications, including The New York Times, Buffalo News, The Washington Times, and Psychiatric Services. The New York Times characterized Judge's book as a "naive and earnest" work about alcoholism. Buffalo News said the book had, "the drama of a made-for-television movie". The Washington Times commented that the author had been motivated by loneliness. Mother Jones placed Judge's work within the genre of books about teenage alcoholism.

Wasted received increased attention in 2018 during the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination, in the wake of statements by psychologist Christine Blasey Ford that implicated Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge in possible sexual assault. Demand for Judge's work significantly increased after reporting by The Washington Post on his books and the statements by Ford. Washington Monthly and Arkansas Times concluded that "Bart O'Kavanaugh" in Wasted was likely a reference to Brett Kavanaugh.

Summary

Wasted: Tales of a Gen-X Drunk is a memoir of the author's experiences with alcoholism. The author takes a cynical view towards Alcoholics Anonymous. He describes his early life growing up in relative suburbia in the state of Maryland, close to Washington, D.C. He recounts attending Catholic educational institutions where drinking alcohol was socially acceptable at a young age. Judge's behavior led to clashes with both the priests and the nuns at his Catholic schools. Judge engages in theft of school supplies from nuns. The author impersonates priests by wearing their attire. Alcoholic behavior was easy to maintain while his parents were absent from his life both by being away from the primary domicicle, and by being inattentive to their son.

The author describes how his father would drink alcohol every day, which had a negative impact on him. He paradoxically maintained a view in his youth that alcoholism was not a condition influenced by role-models, and at the same time tried to seek his father's approval. Judge relates how he felt after his first ever alcoholic drink, at the age of 14. This initial alcoholic experience at such a young age took place in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, at the beach house of a peer of Judge's. He says he experienced a "warm cocoon of oceanic bliss", where he felt what he viewed as a physiological response of pleasure. He developed a taste for alcohol, and his drink of choice was beer. Judge reflects that he did not realize the addiction and development of alcoholism that he was manifesting at the time, writing, "Only years later would I understand what was happening." He subsequently admits that he had indeed become an alcoholic himself. By the time Judge had turned 15, he and a friend provided falsified identification for the purchase of alcohol to his fellow students at a secondary education Catholic institution. Judge writes that at age 15 a friend of his who worked as a bartender regularly supplied him with alcoholic beverages for consumption.

Wasted describes in detail the author's secondary education memories, particularly those involving heavy alcohol usage by his peers and himself at Georgetown Preparatory School. The author writes that the social environment of his peers at the school was, "positively swimming in alcohol". Judge recounts a hookup culture involving binge drinking, especially during a period of time at the school known as "Beach Week". Judge defined "Beach Week" at Georgetown Preparatory School as a "week-long bacchanalia of drinking and sex, or at least attempts at sex". The author discusses a phrase, "100 Kegs Or Bust", in relation to excessive alcohol drinking during his times at Georgetown Preparartory School. Judge remembers a student he refers to as Bart O'Kavanaugh who passed out and threw up in a car. The author recounts going to drink alcohol with his friends at bars for many evenings in a row. He presents in-depth memories of orgies and attempts to have sex fueled with alcohol at residences along the beach shoreline.

Judge recounts episodes of heavy drinking and blackouts during his four years of study at Catholic University of America. The author is able to graduate from university in spite of heavy alcohol use. Judge acknowledges in the book that in his later twenties, he regularly blacked out while drunk, and awoke in locations with no memory of having arrived there. The author describes a panic attack episode at a wedding of a peer, which brought him to the realization that he needed to stop drinking alcoholic beverages. He tried going to Alcoholics Anonymous for the first time, in January 1993. After quitting drinking, Judge recounts suffering from a significant amount of depression. Judge argues in the book that alcoholism is a disease process, and compares it to opiate and heroin. He brings forth research in the book attempting to demonstrate that the brain and liver of alcoholics predispose them to addictive tendencies not seen in otherwise healthy and normative humans. Alcoholics Anonymous is criticized repeatedly in the book, due to its reliance upon psychological themes to combact alcoholism. The author criticizes Alcoholics Anonymous for not emphasizing physiological and biochemical causes of alcoholism.