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Nabaza.net-The MarketPlace - Dry : A Memoir
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List Price: $14.00
Our Price: $9.05
Your Save: $ 4.95 ( 35% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Picador
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Picador
Manufacturer: Picador
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2004-04-01
Publisher: Picador
Studio: Picador
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Editorial Reviews:
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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.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Astounding
Comment: Augusten Burroughs never ceases to amaze. This is by far my favorite book of his. The writing is terrific, the story is captivating. I couldn't put it down. The characters are so real, and even if alcohol isn't you thing, you can identify something in your life that has taken over and relate.
One of my favorite lines comes from a passage where he is describing an ex boyfriend of his. He says,
"He's like this incredibly beautiful Van Gogh painting with slashes all through it. True, it's a Van Gogh. But look at those slashes."
That line made me identify with someone in my own life and helped me realize that sometimes we have to let people go because no matter how much we love them, we cannot make them whole. It actually helped me set aside someone I had been unable to leave behind.
This book is a terrific read. Go out and pick it up. Don't get it from the library- bo buy it. You'll end up buying it anyway.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Every emotion under the martini glass!
Comment: I read Running with Scissors and found it shocking, almost embarrassing and worried that people would be reading over my shoulder on the metro. But it was great and left me feeling shocked that someone could be raised that way and still turn out relatively normal. Dry was extremely witty, scary, sad, exciting, anger provoking, thought provoking, startling, comforting, and truly enjoyable to read. I found myself impatient for my subway ride home and not caring who might be reading over my shoulder. At the end of the read I decided to go purchase the rest of Augusten's memoirs because I just love his brand of humor and wit and sense of irony and sarcasm. He's, umm, dare I say it, addicting.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Better than first novel
Comment: This book is much better than Running with Scissors, Augusten Burroughs' prequel to this book. Thankfully there weren't any graphic sex scenes but there seemed to be a realness about what he was saying. I enjoyed it.
I'm not saying it was my favorite book ever, but it wasn't bad.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sharp, candid, and surprisingly poignant...
Comment: The fact that I finished this book in one day *probably* indicates that I enjoyed it. Indeed, the only novels that I recall where I truly laughed my head off were from chick-lits, trivial as that may sound. But, really, Burroughs has managed to be disarmingly droll while being frightfully honest and self-deprecating. I can't attest if that's from being gay, the result of coming from a dysfunctional family, or perhaps from working in advertising (in New York, no less).
What made this story interesting for me was the way he narrated his excruciating battle with alcoholism, that even someone who doesn't suffer from that ailment can actually empathize with him. Definitely he refrained from being too long-winded about it, avoiding the pitfall of letting his story become boring or monotonous--his cracks about himself, his fellow addicts, down to the closet case that is his boss, openly drew chuckles from me. There was enough balance of falling into bouts of introspection as well as allowing the story to progress via the lively dialogues with the equally captivating secondary characters--the tragedy that is Pighead, the complexity and apparent exceptionality that is Foster, and the oddity namely Greer, among others. A guilty enjoyment for me as well was the encounter with the German advertising client who unwittingly provokes the imagination of Augusten to spout Nazi stereotypes.
Unexpected, though, was the striking insight into repressed emotions and the ability of a person to love another despite seemingly insurmountable flaws. Augusten's relationships perfectly capture what I think is a quintessentially urban tendency of people nowadays to tirelessly compensate for what they think they are missing in life. In a way, this novel shows how cheerless that condition is, and, at the same time, be unafraid of what is, after all, a price for being human.
Augusten's narration of what his childhood was, the blatant abandonment he experienced from his parents, the perversion done to him as a teenager, makes the reader in turns awed and morbidly fascinated with the man that he has become. There were times our protagonist was readily aware of his shortcomings--from keeping up with the AA meetings to juggling his relationships with Pighead and Foster--and if those weren't uncomfortable enough, the reader is also made cognizant of his glaring denials about how he was living his life, pre- and post-rehab.
I highly recommend this novel. Whether one is seeking an understanding of alcoholism, or simply in want of a refreshing, entertaining read--granted it's peeking into the "memoirs" of a self-confessed mess--this story will take you from laughs to sadness, hope to sorrow. (and back again). Without a doubt, this work proves that Burroughs is an Original.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Simultaneously hilarious and poignant
Comment: This was a great book. Augusten Burroughs has such a great narrative style and you immediately feel like you know him, as if you're friends. I couldn't put it down and finished it in two days (would have in one if I didn't have to stop for meals and work!). Highly recommended!
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