Dry [Review]

Stats:
293 Pages [Paperback]
Published 2 June 2003
ISBN: 0312423799
Find on Goodreads



Synopsis:
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.


My Thoughts:
I've heard this is a less than truthful, exaggerated tales type of memoir. I honestly don't care. It's a book and I'm gonna read it because it sounded interesting to me.

Was Dry interesting? Very. Would I read it again? Not likely.

So why would I say an interesting book is not worth a reread? I find myself feeling more unlike towards the book as I try to gather my thoughts to write a review up. Augusten (which isn't his real name) is a very self-centered man and it comes off that way in the book. The book is about his troubles with alcohol. Although I was annoyed at the fact that no where in there did he talk about having a real issue with coke, which he did regularly. The Benadryl was only mentioned once...taking Benadryl 10 times in one day is insane to me. The book dragged in some areas (the German beer rep, the rehab portion, Foster, the relapse, etc.). The book left open some areas, like Rick, who was being completely horrid to Augusten's recovery. He got promoted...and that's it? It was hard to appreciate the journey of alcoholism: identifying the problem, recovering, relapsing, recovering, etc. It was hard to read some of the flashbacks - which ended up having no real purpose to the story - and therefore seemed like bragging. The person that I liked the most in the book was Pighead. I felt that portion of the memoir was done well and done very honestly.


Previous Review:
Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor [here]

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