Reads more like a novel than a memoir. He makes a few observations about the origins of his addiction but stops short of sharing how he overcomes them. It was okay, but not a book I would recommend. Not insightful enough to be helpful, not interesting enough to be entertaining.

The Dry by Jane Harper is a Whodunit from Down Under. It’s an ideal novel to read in the middle of winter because it takes place in the intense heat of a drought-ridden rural area of Australia. The reader feels the exhaustion of the characters suffering physically and mentally in a community that’s on a downward spiral. If that’s not enough, three members of a family have been shot to death. Aaron Falk, a Melbourne police officer, returns to investigate at the request of grieving parents. Thirty years ago Falk and his father left the community under a cloud of suspicion after a young woman drowned. Even as a single spark of fire could ignite the brittle grasslands and destroy the town,
Falk’s reappearance is the last straw for some residents who are a veritable tinderbox of distrust, jealousy, and hatred.

This is a very successful first novel that introduces a likeable character, Aaron Falk. I’m looking forward to reading more challenges for this Aussie policeman in The Force of Nature and The Lost Man.

I'm so very tired... I'll have to come back to discuss. But, I did enjoy this immensely... (can you enjoy immensely? I don't know anymore... so tired...)

3.5 stars - It was really good.

Great insight into the mind of an addict and the writing has me wanting to pick up his other memoirs; really enjoy his narrative style. Not recommended however for those with delicate sensibilities.

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Favorite Quote: When you have your health, you have everything.

First Sentence: Sometimes when you work in advertising, you'll get a product that is really garbage, and you have to make it seem fantastic, something that is essential to the continued quality of life.

I love this book! The writing is compelling and the storytelling is engaging and powerful. First book about alcoholism recovery I have ever read and it hits hard. Highly recommend!!!

By far Augusten Burroughs best book, enough said. If you don't like Dry, you don't like AB.

I've read much of Burroughs' memoirs, so not sure why I have not added them here. Like much of the world, I read Running With Scissors (but I will make a point to claim to have read it well before the movie came out).

“Dry" is a memoir about addiction, and if you have read as many addiction memoirs as I have you can see certain similarities. The characters one meets, for example, are wacky yet universal. One can always learn so much from the unlikeliest people. And there is always the most obvious things to learn about oneself.

The saddest most disturbing thing in "Dry" was the author living in squalor while in a bender. Why was that so sad and disturbing, you want to know? Because he did it for so long, and for so well, and kept doing it, and then makes us all wallow in it and re-live the squalor and the sadness through the telling. And that squalor is squalid.

Step by stumbling step this memoir takes the reader through the author’s battle with alcoholism. I think it is probably over dramatized, as was Running with Scissors, but some of it rang true. Why doesn’t Mr Burroughs just write these memoirs as fiction? That would eliminate the lawsuits and the skeptics.

He does write very well and the sex wasn’t as vulgar as in Scissors. Maybe the fact that the sex in Dry didn’t involve children helped! I could skim when I needed to in this book.

This book makes me wonder if all gay relationships are so insecure, intense, obsessive and possessive or is it just those indulged in by the author. Every lover he has is a jealous drama queen with way too much baggage.

I find no humor in any of the numerous books I’ve read by the Mr Burroughs - how can he be one of the 15 funniest people in America? He’s no match for Dave Barry, Bill Bryson or Tim Dorsey!

By far my favorite Burroughs' novel. This one isn't for the weak of heart, its not the same light feel as some of his other books. This book digs deep and leaves you feeling his hopelessness. Dry is all at once inspirational, depressing, exciting, and frustrating. Immediately after reading his honest and darkly beautiful memoir it immediately made it on my favorite books list.
Burrough's has become a favorite of mine for his seemingly effortless managment of language. He is honest, funny and accessible. The kind of guy you want so desperately to have programed into your cell phone.

I enjoyed it but I finished it over two weeks ago and haven't thought about it since (until I saw I hadn't reviewed yet). Eh?

Being a fan of Burroughs after reading Running With Scissors, I picked up a copy of this book and was not disappointed. In it he shares how he became a copywriter in advertising, and how his drinking eventually became very out of control. Eventually his work gave him the option of going to rehab or leaving, and he chose rehab for 30 days. The book is written in his usual funny/sarcastic way, and there is much to think upon between the covers here. It gets quite gritty and real in its look into alcoholism, drug use and other hard subjects and I feel it was well written.

First published on my WordPress blog:
https://wordpress.com/post/bookblog20...

4.5 stars



Augusten Burroughs

Augusten Burroughs is an American writer who's perhaps best known for his memoir "Running With Scissors", which documents his strange, abusive childhood. In brief, Augusten's parents divorced when he was young, and his unstable mother gave him to her Massachusetts psychiatrist, Dr. Finch. Augusten lived with crazy people in the doctor's filthy home, never went to school, and became the obsession of a pedophile that lived in a barn behind the house. The book was adapted into a 2006 movie.


Augusten Burrough's first memoir, "Running With Scissors"


Movie poster from the film "Running With Scissors"

"Dry" picks up a decade or so after "Running With Scissors", when Burroughs is a successful twentysomething copywriter in New York City, pulling down a six-figure salary. Burroughs is a talented advertising man but his personal life is a mess. He can't handle responsibility, doesn't pay his bills until they go into collection, and (despite being well off) sometimes loses his phone service and utilities. Burroughs is also a serious drunk who's frequently late to work, and often shows up stinking of alcohol.

After Burroughs misses an important meeting with a client his boss gives him an ultimatum: Go to rehab or get fired. Burroughs decides on rehab, and confides the news to his two closest friends: Jim - an undertaker and drinking buddy who's shocked at the news; and Pigface - a banker and former lover who's glad to hear it.

This kind of story can be grim but Burroughs tells his tale with humor.....and affection for the collection of misfits he meets along the way.