Customer Reviews

Dry: A Memoir

5 star:		(83)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Don't let the subjects of drinking and alcohol make you think this is a story romanticizing the wild life. Far from it. "Dry" shows very vividly how damaging alcoholism can be and how quickly a fun time bender can turn into a perpetual destruction of a promising life. Also recommended: "The Glass Castle", "My Fractured Life", and "A Long Way Down."

In New York, in advertising, alcoholism is not a sin when it's manifested in sarcasm, verbal abuse, flakiness or paranoia. In New York, in advertising, you have a drinking problem the morning the muted odor of last night's booze wafts from your pores through a gallon of cologne while the client - a conservative suit inhabited by a man of porterhouse steaks, missionary sex and tax-friendly charitible donations - stands four feet away, narrowing his eyes at you, the creative lush, about to drown the company new line's of crap in bottles of expensive, fashionable liquid stashed in nine convenient locations around the apartment.

It's nowhere near bottom, and though that eventually becomes part of the problem, that's what passes for an addict's epiphany in Augusten Burrough's DRY, his sharpest, saddest, most focused book, an honest retelling of his wobbly recovery from alcoholism and his eventual, total relapse (telegraphed through the entire narrative) that's more intense and devastating than his original tour of addictive duty. When Burroughs finally gets to the bottom of his self-destructive impulses - his attraction to similarly damaged souls and his almost intrinsic narcissism - he completes a surprisingly effective, witty testimonial for day-to-day recovery.

Sent to rehab when his agency thinks his addiction finally overwhelmed his creative abilities, Burroughs zips through his time at the clinic without tremendous discomfort before returning to an apartment pocked with empty bottles, trash and rotted food. He steps right back into the ad world while a best friend/lover, Pighead, struggles with AIDS and a friend from the clinic, also in recovery, moves in. Burroughs makes the AA rounds and meets his weakness: A handsome, trust-fund-rich crack addict, one part earnest, one part poisonous partyboy.

Their relationship deepens, while Burroughs' friendship with Pighead breaks apart, and one of Burroughs' ad bosses inexplicably tries to set him up. This is not the ideal life for a recovering alcoholic, a fact that becomes more clear as Pighead's condition gets worse. Burroughs' book not only shows the after-effects of alcoholism, but how a given lifestyle can play right into the hands of the bottle. I was reminded more than once of the writings of Jackson McCrae, think his KATZENJAMMER with its themes of sex, drugs, selling out, and New York madness. But DRY is different—more obtuse, more frigid. You simply HAVE to read this book to get what I’m talking about. And you should—read it, that is. Highly recommended.

I read running with scissors a few years ago and decided to pick this one up.

I was hooked from the very first page. Burroughs is a wonderful writer, who hooks the reader immediately.

Check it out.

What a solid follow up to Running With Scissors. It's so nice that it isn't a let down after his brilliant, bestselling, and critically acclaimed account of his bizarre childhood. Dry is a must read on so many different and significant levels. It is at once profound and riotously funny--makes you stop and consider the consequences of your own behavior and laugh until your guts hurt. What more can you ask from a book? Like his previous literary efforts, this one is well worth the price . . . and then some. Would also recommend the book----------------------------CHILDREN'S CORNER by Jackson McCrae.

The problem with most books that deal with addiction is that you have to be an addict or have been an addict to understand them. Augusten Burroughs' "Dry" follows in the footsteps of Rikki Lee Travolta's "My Fractured Life" as a great book about an addiction character that doesn't require the reader to be an addict themselves to understand.

Could not put this book down. Also read "Runnning with Scissors" and loved it. Equally enjoyed "The Bark of the Dogwood" with its similar weirdness and angst and humor. Screamed in the bookstore when I saw "Dry" was there and I would have it to take on my vacation. Read for 18 hours straight then spaced it out so as not finish it too quickly. (Did not want to live without Augusten in my life!) Every line made me either laugh out loud or want to memorize it to use later to perfectly describe something. After reading, I feel like I have been an alcoholic, been to rehab, relapsed (cried when Augusten did) and got sober again. This is an absolutley "must read" and will be read by me over and over again until he writes another!

Augusten Burroughs created a masterpiece when he wrote Running With Scissors. His follow up Dry is one of the rare books to match the brilliance of its predecessor. Burroughs has a rare ability to infuse an interplay of comical musings that tempers the worries of addiction and abuse accounts. This unorthodox delivery introduced in Running With Scissors and carried through in Dry is more in tune with what one would expect from a fiction novelist than in the world of Memoir. In the world of books Dry stands together in the elite world of Running With Scissors, Nightmares Echo, Naked Lunch, and My Fractured Life. It is a richly rewarding book that hits the mark.

I can't say enough about this book. It is brutally honest and touching and deals with many issues that many will find difficult to deal with e.g. alcoholism, homosexuality, AIDS. If you liked Running with Scissors, you'll like this more mature memoir better. Highly recommended. If you liked Jackson McCrae's "The Children's Corner" then you'll love this book as well.

Ursula, Memoir fan
This book is a wonderful piece of literature. It is hard to put down and you are given the lessons to understand addictions in its raw forms. Addictions of any kind, take a toll on the person. This author does well to tell us his story and to make us understand what it is like to walk in his shoes. You also are shown 'HOW' this addiction comes about. The abuse is abuse...is abuse theory. That people live what they are taught in so many ways. What a compelling piece of work. I would also like to mention here a few other Memoir style books that have captured my attention the way that 'DRY' has. They are: 'NIGHTMARES ECHO,MY FRACTURED LIFE and RUNNING WITH SCISSORS. Read 'DRY'!!!

I literally read this book in one sitting. It was so well written that I was completely engrossed in the story. Its graphic, real, and heartwrenching. You will laugh out laud and cry many times while reading this book.