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bookjerm's review
4.0
My favorite of his books. Details the author's struggle with alcoholism and how he overcame. Augusten took a very serious matter and--not surprisingly--makes it funny.
methanojen's review
Burroughs fan who enjoyed Running with Scissors will love Dry too. It's not as shockingly hilarious as RWS, but Burroughs' candid writing style about his battle with alcoholism and relationships kept me turning the pages. I hope he's been able to stay dry since this book was published.
cfogleman's review
5.0
Extremely raw and brutally honest about all sides of addiction however he still manages to find a way to make this book feel like a light read. A favorite of this year.
midnight_voss's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. To be quiet honest, I've been audiobooking Augusten Burroughs and his brother John Elder Roberson for about a year. I normally just listen to books as I'm working, or out for a walk, or on a long drive. This is an audiobook I couldn't put down. I listened on the way to school. I listened in between chores. And then I'd come home and just stare as I listened and listened, knowing that I needed to do other things.
As a short synopsis, after Running with Scissors... is it a surprise that the author writes a memoir about dealing with alcoholism? And it's not just a standard arch. He goes to rehab early on... and then there's the rest of the story. It's good enough that I might give it a second listen. There's a awareness to the representation of 12-steps programs, some self-mocking, and for the most part, it is really interesting and insightful. Most people are too jaded to just walk into something like that without being skeptical, and he portrays it well.
There are parts of this book that are heartbreaking, and others that are just hilarious. Burroughs has a good sense of humor, and unlike Running with Scissors, this book has more of a plot to hold it together, though I think some things might have been foreshadowed earlier. He's very good with memoir, obviously, and he has ample life experience to shock and delight you.
Towards the end, there's a section that had me in tears, really. I got very invested.
As a short synopsis, after Running with Scissors... is it a surprise that the author writes a memoir about dealing with alcoholism? And it's not just a standard arch. He goes to rehab early on... and then there's the rest of the story. It's good enough that I might give it a second listen. There's a awareness to the representation of 12-steps programs, some self-mocking, and for the most part, it is really interesting and insightful. Most people are too jaded to just walk into something like that without being skeptical, and he portrays it well.
There are parts of this book that are heartbreaking, and others that are just hilarious. Burroughs has a good sense of humor, and unlike Running with Scissors, this book has more of a plot to hold it together, though I think some things might have been foreshadowed earlier. He's very good with memoir, obviously, and he has ample life experience to shock and delight you.
Towards the end, there's a section that had me in tears, really. I got very invested.
heatherg213's review
3.0
In Running With Scissors, Augusten Burroughs gave us a hilarious and horrifying look into his early life. When his parents divorced, Augusten's mother signed over guardianship of him to her psychotic psychiatrist. Refusing to go to school, he spent his days drinking or getting high with this foster sister, and being preyed upon by a 33 year old pedophile. It was a story like no other-hopefully because no one else has ever lived through that particular brand of hell.
Dry picks up the story of his life as an award winning copywriter at an ad agency and raging alcoholic. After a particularly disastrous business meeting, his company gives him an ultimatum-go to rehab or lose his job. He enters rehab determined to treat it as a spa vacation, only to be confronted pretty quickly with the strange world of group therapy and the 12 steps. He leaves rehab determined to stay sober, but the pressures of real life threaten his fragile sobriety. And this, this is a story I've heard before.
Granted, Dry is told with Burrough's usual wit. I admire his ability to laugh at himself, and unlike some recovery memoirs this one is not preachy or sentimental. But it also doesn't really have anything new to say on the subject of addiction. He was a drunk, for understandable reasons, but still a drunk. He nearly ruined his own (and a few other people's) life. He met some unusual characters in rehab, had difficulty re-entering the "real" (read: sober) world, etc...etc...If you are a fan of Augusten Burroughs, it is probably worth reading just so you can say you've read the "complete set", so to speak, but if you've never read his books before, start with Running with Scissors-much more compelling story.
Dry picks up the story of his life as an award winning copywriter at an ad agency and raging alcoholic. After a particularly disastrous business meeting, his company gives him an ultimatum-go to rehab or lose his job. He enters rehab determined to treat it as a spa vacation, only to be confronted pretty quickly with the strange world of group therapy and the 12 steps. He leaves rehab determined to stay sober, but the pressures of real life threaten his fragile sobriety. And this, this is a story I've heard before.
Granted, Dry is told with Burrough's usual wit. I admire his ability to laugh at himself, and unlike some recovery memoirs this one is not preachy or sentimental. But it also doesn't really have anything new to say on the subject of addiction. He was a drunk, for understandable reasons, but still a drunk. He nearly ruined his own (and a few other people's) life. He met some unusual characters in rehab, had difficulty re-entering the "real" (read: sober) world, etc...etc...If you are a fan of Augusten Burroughs, it is probably worth reading just so you can say you've read the "complete set", so to speak, but if you've never read his books before, start with Running with Scissors-much more compelling story.
jwinchell's review
3.0
While still dark and uncomfortable, this memoir of Burroughs' battle with alcoholism in his early twenties was much more enjoyable than *Running With Scissors.* And though still utterly horrifying, it was also a fascinating plunge into the world of addiction--a page-turner, for sure.
I'm in for *Magical Thinking* now. Can't wait for it to come from the library!
I'm in for *Magical Thinking* now. Can't wait for it to come from the library!