All my favorite establishments were either overly crowded or pathetically empty. People either sipped fine vintages in celebration or gulped intoxicants of who cares what kind, drowning themselves in a lack of moderation, raising a glass to lower inhibitions, imbibing spirits to raise their own.

The Book of Salt: A Novel (ed. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004) - ISBN: 9780547524993