Dry: A Memoir
by Augusten Burroughs
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Book Reviews of Dry: A Memoir
Book Review: Dry review
Summary: 5 Stars
After having read Running with Scissors, which was recommended to me by a close friend, I became fairly obsessed with the work of Augusten Burroughs. The moment I had finished, I ran to the nearest bookstore to scour over all the other memoirs, novels, and collections of short stories that he had written. After reviewing a somewhat extensive selection of his books, I ended up selecting Dry, the sequel to Running with Scissors, to be my next endeavor. I felt a powerful need to pick up where his previous book had left off.
This book was morbidly humorous to the point where I had to stop reading it in public because I could not contain my spontaneous bursts of laughter. Augusten Burroughs' life has been so astounding that it almost makes the reader question his validity. He begins living on his own at the age of nineteen, having had no education past the seventh grade. However with the somewhat unnatural charm he possesses, he is able to walk into an advertising agency from off the street and talk his way into being hired on the spot. He soon becomes one of the agency's most valued advertising representatives with the worst substance abuse problem.
Augusten uses alcohol, cocaine, and crack to numb himself from the pain of his past and present. After falling into a state of squalor, which involved drinking two bottles of scotch a night and urinating repetitively in his bed, his friends decide to step in. Augusten is sent to a gay-friendly rehabilitation center where he is forced to deal with the unconventional upbringing that left him so unstable as well as the fight of a loved one against aids. After rehab Augusten must struggle to redefine his life in terms of sobriety and adapt to this drastic change. He gives a great effort to find a balance between work and leisure which excludes the stresses that caused him to turn to substances, while still dealing with certain issues that he cannot escape.
This book is utterly incredible. My only disappointment was that it had to end. Augusten Burroughs wrote this memoir to expose to his readers how bad life can get. He also intended to send the hopeful message that no matter how difficult things become, life can always get better. Dry shows the reader that no matter what their current situation may be, if they have the intrinsic motivation, they can always improve upon it. This memoir leaves the reader both motivated and comfortably optimistic. It is a tragic yet satisfying tale of a young mans life.
Burroughs has a natural gift for captivating the reader entirely by completely exposing himself. He is ashamed of nothing and embraces his flaws. He spares no details of when he hit rock bottom for it shows how far he had to come and how much of an accomplishment it was. Anyone who reads this is sure to fall instantaneously in love with the author for his wit, determination, and imperfections.
Book Review: Sharp, candid, and surprisingly poignant...
Summary: 5 Stars
The fact that I finished this book in one day *probably* indicates that I enjoyed it. Indeed, the only novels that I recall where I truly laughed my head off were from chick-lits, trivial as that may sound. But, really, Burroughs has managed to be disarmingly droll while being frightfully honest and self-deprecating. I can't attest if that's from being gay, the result of coming from a dysfunctional family, or perhaps from working in advertising (in New York, no less).
What made this story interesting for me was the way he narrated his excruciating battle with alcoholism, that even someone who doesn't suffer from that ailment can actually empathize with him. Definitely he refrained from being too long-winded about it, avoiding the pitfall of letting his story become boring or monotonous--his cracks about himself, his fellow addicts, down to the closet case that is his boss, openly drew chuckles from me. There was enough balance of falling into bouts of introspection as well as allowing the story to progress via the lively dialogues with the equally captivating secondary characters--the tragedy that is Pighead, the complexity and apparent exceptionality that is Foster, and the oddity namely Greer, among others. A guilty enjoyment for me as well was the encounter with the German advertising client who unwittingly provokes the imagination of Augusten to spout Nazi stereotypes.
Unexpected, though, was the striking insight into repressed emotions and the ability of a person to love another despite seemingly insurmountable flaws. Augusten's relationships perfectly capture what I think is a quintessentially urban tendency of people nowadays to tirelessly compensate for what they think they are missing in life. In a way, this novel shows how cheerless that condition is, and, at the same time, be unafraid of what is, after all, a price for being human.
Augusten's narration of what his childhood was, the blatant abandonment he experienced from his parents, the perversion done to him as a teenager, makes the reader in turns awed and morbidly fascinated with the man that he has become. There were times our protagonist was readily aware of his shortcomings--from keeping up with the AA meetings to juggling his relationships with Pighead and Foster--and if those weren't uncomfortable enough, the reader is also made cognizant of his glaring denials about how he was living his life, pre- and post-rehab.
I highly recommend this novel. Whether one is seeking an understanding of alcoholism, or simply in want of a refreshing, entertaining read--granted it's peeking into the "memoirs" of a self-confessed mess--this story will take you from laughs to sadness, hope to sorrow. (and back again). Without a doubt, this work proves that Burroughs is an Original.
Book Review: Was Anyone REALLY Surprised?
Summary: 3 Stars
if you've read "running with scissors," a story depicting a nutjob upbringing amidst a clan of weirdos that I can only akin to "The Addams Family," it should not be a shock to you that augusten burroughs ended up the liquor-drowned, however succesful wretch that he turned out to be. he was set up for failure by a strange ESTRANGED mother who shoo'd him off to the great unknown to be raised by a group of...lunatics, for lack of a better word than what i've used already. the poor guy was doomed from the start because of improper upbringing, thanks to the self-centered, uncaring foolishness of a deeply maladjusted mother. augusten shimmies us up to date, kind of catching us up as to how he jumped from the pot-smoking, child-molested underachiever from the previous memoir to the alcoholic new york city ad guru of recent years. fiercely homosexual in both books, augusten keeps up his trend of being a poor judge of character by associating himself with an HIV victim and a drunk as equally doomed in mind and body as he is. when his low performance at work due to drunkeness or hangovers becomes too much for his coworkers to take, tough love kicks in in the form of a 30-day rehabilitation or unemployment. he opts for rehab, having grown accustomed to living the big-time in his NYC closet space.
of course he goes for a gay rehab hospital and makes the mistake of associating himself with another loser in the form of a british narcotics abuser. still, with the ups and downs, augusten comes out clean and sober, wondering how in the world he let himself become so low and live such an unappealing life. but after falling in love with a hunky crackhead country boy, the question is, will augusten stay sober or fall back into his old tricks? An accomplished writer who keeps you wanting to read, read, read, despite people's urges to constantly, CONSTANTLY compare him to david sedaris, he is NOTHING LIKE SEDARIS so don't pick up this book hoping for funny little stories about the mundane. they are both gay writers who make memoirs. that's the end of it! it's like once when i heard some idiot say bernie mack was the host of a popular hbo talk show and chris rock had a hit comedy on fox. why? because they are black, celebrity comedians. people often expose their ignorance by trying to cover it up with "insightful" additions about how smart they want to seem by comparing like entities. GET OVER IT. sedaris is sedaris and burroughs is burroughs.
i digress.
i enjoyed this book and i am always amazed by the ugliness that befalls REAL drunks during their worst of times. it is sad, it is often stomach-churning, it is real. i applaud burroughs for making it through the wet harshness of alcoholism and emerging dry as a bone...one day at a time.
Book Review: One Day At A Time
Summary: 5 Stars
"Dry" is the kind of book you wish would never end. Auguesten Burroughs tells us his story of getting dry from his alcoholic bent. His writing is so vibrant, I almost at one time felt like I had a hangover along with him. The book was so fabulously funny at some points on his way to the dry side; I wanted him to stay in his rehab. Well, not really, but almost!
Augusten, as a child can you imagine that name? Augusten is a malcontent, his mother gave him away to a psychiatrist and in the process of trying to grow up he was raped and essentially had a difficult childhood. In Augusten's dry period he realizes he has never forgiven his mother, and really, who could? He went on to become a very successful advertising copywriter, in an office with as many malcontents as clients. Auguesten is also gay. This is an accepted part of his life and there are not any periods of wondering why, he just is.
In Augusten's apartment he had enough empty Dewar bottles to fill 17 very heavy garbage bags and it took 7 hours for him to clean his apartment after he came home from rehab. A simile for his life, I suppose. He tried very hard to remain sober. He went to AA, his counseling sessions and tried to stay away from drink but it was hard, very hard. And, he did succeed for a while.
Augusten had many friends and pighead was his best friend and once a lover. Pighead had HIV and was successful in his life. But times change, and just as Augusten was changing his life and loving it, pighead became ill. It was a slow process and one that Augusten who was so involved in his new daily life, that he did not notice at first that pighead was slowly leaving this world. One day at a time, the axiom of the AA world. Augusten was slowly knocking the days away to day 90, one of the most important days in a reformed alcoholics life. He reached this milestone and then he knocked it down and with a new friend, Foster, he escapes back into his world.
Augusten Burroughs is insightful, and he weaves a tale of his messy life with humour and understanding and forgiveness. He is a talent to be reckoned. His writing is imaginative and right on the edge. I am there with him, I am not an alcoholic, but I know what it is like now, and I know the life one leads. Augusten has a little piece of my heart now.
Highly recommended. prisrob
Book Review: Twelve Steps
Summary: 5 Stars
What happens when you deny you have a problem? What happens when the problem overwhelms your life? What happens when your employers do an intervention? You either decide you can find another job or you pack your bags and head for the nearest treatment program you can find. Augusten Burroughs, in his amazingly honest memoir, takes the high road and heads to a treatment program that works specifically with homosexuals.Augusten Burroughs is a 25-year old advertising executive with a serious alcohol problem. He denies that drinking until he forgets or being late for work on a regular basis is a problem. He denies that the looks of his clients and the disapproving stares of his co-workers are because he reeks of alcohol and has a disheveled appearance. He believes that everything is fine and as long as he sets his alarm clock before he goes to bed, no one will know of his nightly binges. Unfortunately, this is part of the denial process of an alcoholic.
Initially upon entering the treatment center, Augusten wants to hightail it out of there because he feels he is in the wrong place and that his problem with alcohol cannot be that bad. However, it does not take long for him to realize that he is an alcoholic. He spends 30 days in treatment and returns home a changed person outwardly, but we soon realize the emotional issues that have plagued him since his horrific childhood cannot be overcome within 30 days. In fact, he must face the illness that may kill his best friend and one true love, Pighead. Although Augusten wants to maintain his sobriety, he struggles and eventually falls off the wagon and the reader can see it coming a hundred pages out.
DRY: A MEMOIR takes the reader on a personal journey into the life of an alcoholic, who just happens to be gay. His haunting childhood seems unbelievable. Augusten Burroughs tells us his story with humor, honesty and depth. His story is a testament to the struggles of alcoholics and those who are victims of childhood abuse. This was a creative story of truth that will grasp the reader from the very first page. This is a very enjoyable memoir that will make you laugh one minute, get mad the next but understand in the end.
Reviewed by Cashana Seals
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers