Dry: A Memoir

Rating:
Summary: Depth, reality, humanity
Review: For someone who doesn't fancy himself a memoir reader, I'm glad to find books in the genre such as this which shine. Anyone who read Running with Scissors, Burrough's first memoir, and enjoyed it well past the hilarious "and then there was the antique ECT machine under the stairs" line into the ups and downs of that life...well, you'll also want to read this book. It's not a 'follow up' any more than Time Regained is a follow up to Swann's Way; Dry stands related but on it's own merits. Nor is the book a 'rehab' book because it transcends that kind of labelling as well. The author doesn't have to resort to edgey posturing. Burroughs privileges us with an honest look at his life and so tells us a bit more about what it means to be human. And check out his website...: from his bio you just know there's more to come, which is pretty amazing for someone who isn't 40 yet.

Rating:
Summary: even better than 'running with scissors'
Review: this book caught me off guard with its raw emotion. i was expecting something more quirky but am thrilled with what i got. i highly recommend this book and anything else burroughs has written or will write.

Rating:
Summary: A Really Great Follow Up
Review: After reading about Augusten Burroughs train wreck of a childhood in "Running With Scissors", I didn't know if I was up for tackling his alcoholic adulthood in "Dry".
I'm glad I did. And frankly less of a tackle, than a roll with a familiar face/voice, I thought it terrific.
Having just recently read Carrie Fishers "The Best Awful" these books were like damaged book ends that both meet in the middle at rehab. But where the bulk of Fishers book was her lack of pill popping that quickly leads to her prolonged mental breakdown, Burroughs bottoms out near the start of the book, as a successful advertising whiz kid whose normal nightly consumption is at least twelve drinks. His story is of Manhattan as seen through the eyes that couldn't see before. Or at the very least focus. A dear friend sick with AIDS, a high pressure job, and a toxic crack smoking boyfriend are all potential disasters waiting to send him back to the bottle. Funny, dark and terribly honest, it's cup runs over with hope.

Rating:
Summary: Can Get In To The Heart Of It
Review: This was an easy book to get in to the heart of. Excellent style of writing. The author takes you through the painstaking journey of the different forms of abuse and how it drives the adult in to addictions that are so difficult to control. There are many books out on the market that deal with abuse, and yet only a few such as 'Dry','Running With Scissors' and Nightmares Echo' allow the reader to understand without to much of the physical look in to that side of their lives.

Rating:
Summary: A Delight!
Review: This book was a pleasure to read, I could hardly put it down. Augusten's story is both funny and moving. I've read all of Augusten's books to date, and I recommend them all. If you like one, you like them all too.

Rating:
Summary: Not dry at all
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Elite
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: If You Like Running With Scissors -- Try this!
Review:
Augusten is a lucky bum. In his life, he's given chance after chance, blows it again and again -- yet somehow makes it through. Although the topic of the book is something that's kind of a downer, Burroughs is able to make this memoir a roller coaster of emotions. The story is filled with characters who encourage Augusten, some who tempt him, and others ... we're not sure of. They include a guy named Pighead, diagnosed with HIV and who may be Augusten's great Lost Love; Foster, a movie star good-looking guy Augusten meets in Group Therapy; Hayden, a Brit comrade from Rehab; Greer-one of my my favorite characters, who's his partner at the ad agency where he works. There's also a bit of Mormon-bashing in the book, as his arch-enemy at the ad agency is LDS, and who evidently wants to destroy Augusten. Even though Augusten's doing a damn good job by himself.

There are many twists and turns in the book, but the narrative is more coherent than "Running With Scissors" was. The spirit and style is the same as his first memoir, but this is better. He still goes off on tangents and flashbacks and fantasies, all of which offer insight into how his mind is working. Some of my favorites include explaining his addiction by his early obsession with "Bewitched" ... how Darren Stevens the First would come home from a long day at Tate Advertising and Samantha would whip up a drink for him; another is an extended fantasy about Sally Struthers that you'll just have to read to believe. I was laughing so hard that I got teary-eyed.

I cried later in the book -- and reading about his struggles made me want to change some things about my life. I don't always agree with him or what he said in the book, and I don't envy him his own demons, but I think that the trials we've each been given are what we each can bear. How we cope with temptation is part of the measure of our lives.

This was a wonderful book, even though it was filled with some vile things, a few unsavory scenes, but it gave me insight into a part of humanity that I'm not well acquainted with. I probably won't have most of the experiences that Augusten writes about here, but reading his memoir has affected my life. If just for a few hundred pages, I know more about the ups and downs of going "Dry." Give this book a try! Another recent purchase very much on my mind since I purchased a "used" copy off Amazon is "The Losers' Club" by Richard Perez, an exceptional, highly entertaining little novel I can't stop thinking about.


Rating:
Summary: Even better than "Running with Scissors"
Review: I read "Dry" very soon after finishing "Running with Scissors" and think I enjoyed this second Burroughs memoir even more than the first. (And I LOVED the first!) Reading Burroughs is like having a long conversation with a fascinating, candid friend. Blessedly, this book lacks some of the stomach turning qualities, and gross out humor, of the first.

After his madcap and unstable childhood in "Scissors," who would have guessed that Burroughs would wind up as a six-figure ad exec? That is one of the many surprises of this page turner. Burroughs chronicles his alcohol addiction, a stint in rehab, and two notable love affairs in a breezy style that contrasts with the serious events. And, in spite of the melodramatic twists, never once do you feel like you're witnessing a tawdry, Jerry Springer type display. There is a humanity behind all this, thankfully. In the end, Burroughs life is strangely uplifting because it is a story of survival. It is a reminder that, prior to the popularity of child-centered, family values political rhetoric, kids got through a lot and lived to tell.

Rating:
Summary: How do you just live?
Review: In no time I finished this autobiographic book and I loved it. Burroughs' style of writing is very natural and prosaic. Every now and then he displays quite some insight in human condition and phylosophy. It seemed to me he has a strong and creative personality. Somehow though he 'likes' to be sedated and lonely. Is there a cause for becoming an alcoholic? Well, some he confesses, others are left behind or dont even exist. I was suprised this publicity agency where he works sends him to a rehabilitation centre to give him a chance to recover. I thought NYC is much more tough. While reading I visited Augusten's website. I found out he is dry now, and happy with his partner Dennis. That's a relief :-) I have seen a lot of drinking and using drugs in the gayscene myself. I guess for the same reasons as for straight people, to control the deep fears of failure.