Augusten Burrough's Dry is a memoir, I think. The blurb on the back explains that it's about his struggle with alcoholism. The genre label on the back cover indicates memoir. However, it was in my library's fiction section. Color me confused.

Dry is addicting. How ironic, considering it's about kicking addiction. The people (are they characters? are they amalgams of several people? see what happens when memoirs are in the fiction section?) are vivid and the story is enticing. The life of a rich ad exec crumbling under the allure of liquor. His crackhead lover with a trust fund. His London rehab buddy who plays some mean pong. The co-worker who desperately needs a vacation or some anger management. AA. Rehab. The dying friend with whom he constantly bickers. The fear of relapse. With every turn of the page, I was rooting for him, hoping he did not relapse. With every turn, I turned my head away if I thought he would relapse, not wanting to know if he did. He's not pathetic. He's real. Reality is not pretty sometimes, but even these ugly times are beautiful.

Read this as an audio book.. So guess I should say listened to it. The book is at times harsh and disturbingly frank in its descriptions of alcoholism. Mr Burroughs is very open with his account of his addiction. At times I really didn't like him, but the writing itself was captivating. I wanted to keep listening, I wanted to hear more. Although it took me a while to get through the book, it was only due to restrictions of time to actually listen to a book. Mr Burroughs was the actual narrator of the book and I thought he did a wonderful job.

This book rolled through all the star ratings. I haven't experienced that so sharply before. Burroughs did an excellent job at evolving his writing alongside his story and his self evolving as experiences occurred. I nearly quit when it was full of city advertising life and culture but hitting bottom and coming out of it, the small sparks of hope and beauty, had a power to them.

Kind of like someone you don't like that much but then you hear their story and remember compassion can soften all kinds of edges. Presenting people of other cultures and languages was effective but grim.
Reading this while in my own mild alcohol dilemma was valuable.

4 stars for the facial expressions and emotions it pulled from me. And for the wide eyed wonder of AA feelings and getting real.

Rehab feelings chart noted.

I've read several books by Burroughs, but this one is by far my favorite. I do not particularly care about the ongoing debate surrounding the accuracy of his "autobiographies". Let's just say his work is more or less autobiographical. And of all his life's adventures, this is the one that won me over the most. Even more than the far more outlandish Running With Scissors. I love most of his essays, as well. No, he's no David Sedaris, but he's pretty brilliant in his own right.

I LOVED this book. At the time I was reading it (can't remember when, that should tell you something), I related to Augusten's struggles somewhat, and when he compares the lobby of the rehab to the Kitty Hawk Lounge at the Fresno Air Terminal...well, that was just too good. Fortunately, I never had to go to rehab, but I have been to the Kitty Hawk, and let me tell you, it was depressing as hell. Rough subject matter dealt with in a funny, humane manner.

Continuing the memoir trilogy, Augusten Burroughs takes the reader through his struggles with addiction as a young man. Living in New York City, Burroughs is busy with an advertising firm, making six-figures, and having little to rein him in. He recounts how his drinking got in the way of his job, where he would turn up randomly reeking of alcohol. After embarrassing himself and the firm on numerous occasions, Burroughs is offered a choice; go into rehabilitation or lose the job. Struggling to come to terms with his drinking, Burroughs choose rehab, though stands firm that he does not need it. He departs for a facility in Minnesota, where he encounters a number of other addicts as various points in their sobriety journey. In the early stages, Burroughs feels that he can overcome his drinking by choice, the "if I want it, I will do it" attitude. He pushes back against the services offered and program presented, finding them silly and somewhat overbearing. However, he has an epiphany while in treatment and as his thirty days come to an end, he develops a new-found respect for sobriety and its fragility. The true test transpires when he's released, sent back to New York City armed with a small dose of program and the requirement to attend an outpatient facility for six months. Though not mandatory, Alcoholics Anonymous is also recommended, a lifelong support that could only help him stabilise in the outside world. As the memoir continues, Burroughs explores life back in New York, a special someone he meets in his outpatient group, and a lingering connection from his rehab days that tries not only to vie for his attention, but to keep him from falling off the deep end. Highly humerous throughout with strong passages of heartfelt angst, Burroughs serves up a stellar second volume to his memoirs as he forces the reader to think and feel in ways they may not have thought possible.

With a better understanding of both his writing style and approach to the memoir mechanism, Burroughs' second instalment had me captivated from the outset. His use of concrete examples in the narrative combined with flashbacks offers the reader a wonderful combination of fresh material and poignant events that shape the man he became. Burroughs presents a close to seamless story of his struggles and the depths to which he sunk before pulling himself out, only to come crashing back to earth in a moment of weakness. He does offer extensive thanks to those who played a role in his recovery, but does not let the battle facing him go without crediting his own willpower. That he slipped up in numerous ways is not lost on the attentive reader, but this goes more to present Burroughs as a fallible man, rather than portraying an individual who can rise above the fray. Shocking in its honesty and clear in the pathway on which this journey developed, Burroughs provides the reader with insight and hope for a man who came close to losing it all.

Again, a special thank you to Rae Eddy, who recommended the Augusten Burroughs memoirs. She has been a great help as I realise my need to deal with some of the blurry portions of my past to develop stronger and more solid bonds to the present, as I peer into what the future has in store.

Kudos, Mr. Burroughs for this wonderfully raw piece of work. I am curious to see how you tie things off in the final volume of this entertaining memoir.

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Review to come.

We all know or have met someone like this. Snarky, expensive suits, gets by on his wits, drinks way too much and somehow manages to pull it off, or so he thinks. He's an advertising executive living in Manhattan, and his social life all revolves around drinking and recreational drugs, occasionally cruising gay bars, and hanging out with a few friends. At some point it spins out of control and he is given an ultimatum by his company to enter rehab. Like other things in his life until that point, he is delusional about what the experience entails but toughs it out for 30 days before returning to Manhattan, his job at the ad agency, and the same environment that enveloped him previously. This narrative is his memoir of that journey. He's a good writer, and this is an unvarnished view of his experiences. He's not an easily likeable character, but it was a worthy read. 3.75 rounded up for the writing.

Like this author's honesty. He is very funny, but in a dark way. He is neurotic, but knows it. He approaches sobriety as he approaches life, something to be endured. Still, you want to reward him for his honesty and give him the good life he deserves.

THE break-up book. While it may seem that Burroughs's story about his struggle with addiction and sobriety would have little to do with the average twenty-something's experience muddling through a break up, I have found no better book to read in the wake of a disasterous relationship.

For example, once he's sober and out of rehab, Burroughs begins counting days. (He keeps track of how many days he goes without dringking, and must to keep counting until he hits the 90-day mark, after which the coutning becomes optional.) This is a great method to use following a break up. For each day you do not have contact (of any kind!) with the object of your heartahce, you get to count a day. Keep couting until you hit 90. (those first 90 are the hardest.)

Not to mention, it makes you feel better to know that his life during this period is way worse than anything that you're going through. Gives you a little perspective.

A heartbreaker of a book, both horrifying, and strangely ... unputdownable.

This is the second Burroughs book I've read, and again, I find his writing not necessarily beautiful and poetic, or quotable and elegant, but incredibly engaging and real, and he makes me smile at how honest he is -- when he tells us something awful and personal about himself, I'm taken aback and almost embarrassed at first, then a little more embarrassed because I realize I do it too or at least do something similar and equally kind of disgusting and embarrassing, and then smile at his ability to tell us this when I'd barely be able to write it down on a piece of paper that only I'd be reading. It's endearing.

I am also a big fan in particular of cheesy, lame-sounding, last-thing-in-the-world-you-want-to-do self-help type activities with groups of people (teambuilding and the like would fall into this too, icebreakers, etc) that end up, at the end of the day, having exactly the effect they're intended to, and win you over, however much you thought you weren't 'that type'. (Warning: only Georgetown applicable: ) What do you expect, I was an ESCAPE leader. Though I guess the point is that the beauty of this shit is when it appeals to people that wouldn't dream of going on escape, let alone apply to be marshmallow roasters.