Blackout

''SIMPLY EXTRAORDINARY'' New York Times ''It''s such a savage thing to lose your memory, but the crazy thing is, it doesn''t hurt one bit. A blackout doesn''t sting, or stab, or leave a scar when it robs you. Close your eyes and open them again. That''s what a blackout feels like.'' For Sarah Hepola, alcohol was ''the gasoline of all adventure''. She spent her evenings at cocktail parties and dark bars where she proudly stayed till last call. Drinking felt like freedom, part of her birthright as an enlightened twenty-first-century woman. But there was a price. She often blacked out, waking up with a blank space where four hours should be. Mornings became detective work on her own life. What did I say last night? How did I meet that guy? Publicly, she covered her shame with self-deprecating jokes, and her career flourished, but as the blackouts accumulated, she could no longer avoid a sinking truth. The fuel she thought she needed