Augusten Burroughs Week: Day One - DRY Book Review
About the Book: From the bestselling author of Running with Scissors comes Dry—the hilarious, moving, and no less bizarre account of what happened next.
You may not know it, but you've met Augusten Burroughs. You've seen him on the street, in bars, on the subway, at restaurants: a twenty-something guy, nice suit, works in advertising. Regular. Ordinary. But when the ordinary person had to drinks, Augusten was circling the drain by having twelve; when the ordinary person went home at midnight, Augusten never went home at all. Loud, distracting ties, automated wake-up calls, and cologne on the tongue could only hide so much for so long. At the request (well, it wasn't really a request) of his employers, Augusten landed in rehab, where his dreams of group therapy with Robert Downey, Jr., are immediately dashed by the grim reality of fluorescent lighting and paper hospital slippers. But when Augusten is forced to examine himself, something actually starts to click, and that's when he finds himself in the worst trouble of all. Because when his thirty days are up, he has to return to his same drunken Manhattan life—and live it sober. What follows is a memoir that's as moving as it is funny, as heartbreaking as it is real. Dry is the story of love, loss, and Starbucks as a higher power.
Our Take: Our first introduction to Augusten was in his first title 'Running With Scissors'. You may have even seen the feature film based on this childhood memoir. Well, he treats us to further insights into his twisted life in this memoir: Dry. Dry picks up about a decade after 'Running with Scissors' ends. You can only imagine what a mess he is after the way he was raised. He's an advertising rep in New York and doing quite well, but he's a horrible alcoholic. Alcohol is ruining his life to the extent that his co-workers stage an intervention and he has to begin a 30-day rehab. We felt that it was important to take the time to honor Augusten with an entire week here at Book Legion, so we're posting one of his titles each day this week!
The cast of this book is really focused on mental health professionals, other men from his gay rehab group and similar characters. The struggle of Augusten to stay clean is quite the journey. Its mixed with as much tragic whit as can be expected. We love Augusten. His snarky style of writing and his abundant personality really come out in an amazing way. He's so enjoyable that Its almost a silver lining to abuse....its certainly theraputic.
Tune in tomorrow for the next title in our Augusten Burroughs week: Magical Thinking: True Stories.
The cast of this book is really focused on mental health professionals, other men from his gay rehab group and similar characters. The struggle of Augusten to stay clean is quite the journey. Its mixed with as much tragic whit as can be expected. We love Augusten. His snarky style of writing and his abundant personality really come out in an amazing way. He's so enjoyable that Its almost a silver lining to abuse....its certainly theraputic.
Tune in tomorrow for the next title in our Augusten Burroughs week: Magical Thinking: True Stories.
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