Books from my Amazon Wish List: Dry by Augusten Burroughs (625 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.62 on 10 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by AlwaysAnEagle (View user info) at 2006-03-16 10:16:09 EST
Guys...seriously. Get on the Augusten Burroughs love train.
The first book of Augusten Burroughs' that I read was "Running With Scissors," which I would guess is his best known work. It seems like everyone I've talked about him with came to his writing arrived at the pages of his books via some weird twist of fate...my aunt found him when she found David Sedaris' newest book was a little more sweet and sugary than she was hoping, my neighbor found him on the recommendation of someone who MAYBE reads one book per year and hates it the whole time. I stumbled across Running With Scissors when my grandmother thanked me for recommending it (eh?), told me that she still had my copy (zuh?), and would be sending it back as soon as she got home (o...kay?). So I figure, "well, maybe I forgot I read it," and wait for it to arrive to see if it rings any bells. It didn't, but when I finally did read it - apparently after reading it and recommending it to MY GRANDMOTHER with my subconcious - I finished the last page both horrified and deeply in love. I still don't know who really recommended it to my grandmother, but I never would have...great book, but generally I recommend books about crazy-ass childhoods replete with prescription drug abuse, a kid pooping under a piano, dilapidated houses run and owned by cracked out psychiatrists, and May-December homosexual relationships involving minors to people who aren't, you know...seventy seven. Luckily my grandmother RULES.
So it was with this experience behind me that I ordered Dry, Burroughs' memoir about his battles with alcoholism. His writing was what got me, and probably always will, because I know that whatever he writes, I will buy and devour. It is at once so clean and so descriptive that you just fly through the pages. Augusten Burroughs writes the way I - and probably most of the writers on this site - wish they could write. Evocative description without getting heavy and damp, perfect character depth in two sentences worth of exposition, word choice like the whole Oxford English Dictionary is hanging out in his head. He has such a talent for noting the obtuse and the weird in the everyday things we do, and he'll point them out gracefully, with a smattering of words that rises out of what's going on in the book, then dives back down into the fray.
Burroughs begins the book as an alcoholic ad exec, whose entire life revolves around drinking. He doesn't tell you this, he shows you. His best friend is his drinking buddy, an undertaker named Jim, whose life is on a similar orbit. After showing up to a pitch reeking of booze, Augusten's bosses and partner confront him about his drinking, and persuade him to go into rehab. He goes thinking of it more as a vacation than anything else, only to find out that it's no cakewalk. He does it all, the group therapy, the AA, the withdrawals...it's the lite (and true) version of James Frey's picture of rehab - less Wild West, more higher power. You can feel Burroughs wishing he had a drink, feel him in a place he doesn't seem to belong, feel him dread going back to work and a "normal" life.
He does go back out to his old life, seeing it all in a fresh light. His apartment is a mess, full of over three hundred (!) empty Dewars bottles. He suspects that his boss is tormenting him by putting airplane bottles of booze and alcoholic images around his office, and to top it off, his first project upon his return to his job is to create an ad campaign for a German beer company. He struggles through all of the solid things, and also wades through the shifts in his relationships with people. I found a scene where he met his friend Jim at a bar, breaking the rules of rehabilitation to meet Jim's new girlfriend, particularly tough...all at once, he's discovering how different everything has to be, fighting the urge to order up a drink, and seeing himself in this situation. Burroughs winds up dating someone from his group theraphy, a constantly relapsing drug addict, and he struggles with the fact that this man will never be able to kick his habit, and as a result, will never be able to give Augusten the support and love he needs.
The messy center of the book, and Augusten's life, is held together by the presence of Augusten's sober, HIV-positive ex-boyfriend turned best friend, Pighead. The book is really one large essay on pain - all the different types, all the fear that comes along with it, and in no place is this clearer than in Augusten's talk about and interaction with Pighead. He is terrified that he will not be able to handle it when Pighead dies, and because of that, he puts off spending time with him, is slow to answer his calls, and all but disregards his presence in his life until Pighead prods him into letting him back in, however briefly. Towards the end of the book, Pighead goes into the hospital, and Augusten begins taking care of him when he is too weak to do it himself. In the end, it is Pighead's presence that gives Augusten the strength to beat his eventual relapse and move forward to a better life.
This book is a remarkable look at an alcoholic life - any life so sharply realized would make for excellent reading, and this is where Burroughs shines. I recommend any book of his, but especially this one. I would actually also recommend reading it after reading Running With Scissors, if memoirs and biographies are your thing...it'll give you a little more road to travel and a nice complete picture of how he got to where he wound up.
But really. No matter where the love train is going or when it will get there, get on it. You will not be sorry.
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Fat Girl, by Judith Moore - http://www.ubersite.com/m/85227
User Reviews
Submitted by PokeyPecker (user info) at 2006-03-16 14:26:46 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
elizabeth wurtzel is a psycho bitch whore!!!
Submitted by Badlands (user info) at 2006-03-16 13:46:50 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
As a booze-soaked Ad Exec myself, I felt compelled to read this book about a year ago. Loved it.
Submitted by leilani (user info) at 2006-03-16 10:52:10 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
thanks, this comes at a good time, i have been looking for something interesting to read and i love addiction as a subject.
have you ever read "More, Now, Again" by elizabeth wurtzel? good book.
Submitted by PokeyPecker (user info) at 2006-03-16 10:48:33 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
As ubersite's resident, raging, life destroyed by booze alcoholic, I guess I'll have to read this.
Submitted by TigerLilly (user info) at 2006-03-16 10:38:19 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I've heard this man is great. Thanks Jos.
Submitted by AlwaysAnEagle (user info) at 2006-03-16 10:31:24 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I feel like I have to give props to the designer of his book covers too. They are all SO fantastic, just beautiful. I bought the black on white with the bleeding cover, but I love the fish in a glass one, and the life preserver one is terrific with a little dash of "heh." The cover of Magical Thinking is also awesome(an empty glass with a glass above it pouring water into the empty one, but the stream of water makes a u-turn and heads for the top of the cover before it gets there).
The guy's name is Chip Kidd and obviously, he rules.
Submitted by Pentameter (user info) at 2006-03-16 10:23:47 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I love this man. His books are fan-fucking-tastic. It is so hard to believe that anyone experienced what he did and survived.
Amazing. Definitely worth the money.
Submitted by Teephphah (user info) at 2006-03-16 10:23:12 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I'm nearly to the bottom of my current "to read" stack. Might pick this up after I finish "Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals."
I need something to help me sober up again anyway.
Submitted by corn_nugget (user info) at 2006-03-16 10:18:26 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I just finished Running With Sissors. FANTASTIC book.
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2006-03-16 10:17:58 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I'll pass, thanks. It looks shitty but I will say that you ARE doing a nice and thorough job on this series so I will not minus you.