Dry

Dry-Augustus Burroughs

How I found this book: One of my friend Megan’s suggestions, I found out about it shortly after hearing about the movie Running With Scissors.

Setting: New York City

Main Characters:

The Author: This is a memoir of Augustus Burroughs; so much of the action is scene through his eyes. He is an alcoholic who is self-centered, shallow, and needy, but who also has a troubled past and a humorous streak.

Pighead: Augustus’s one time lover, now his best friend, he is suffering from AIDS.

Foster: A fellow alcoholic Augustus meets at Alcoholic’s Anonymous, handsome, attractive, and self-destructive, Augustus finds himself attracted to him and ultimately gets drawn down because of it.

Hayden: One of Augustus’s friends from rehab, a Brit who is illegally in the US, he tries to keep himself and Augustus sober, even while August is playing with fire in the form of Foster.

Jim: Augustus’s drinking buddy.

Plot: Augustus Burroughs hates his job in advertising and is refusing to accept that his best friend and former lover is dying of AIDS. So like any rational human being, he decides to get piss drunk, all the time. When his co-workers call him on it, he ships himself off to rehab, where he gets sober all right. But once out, he lacks the emotional securities that rehab granted him, and it’s a much different and bigger world back in New York sober than it was drunk. When Foster enters his life, he is drawn to the self-destructive, yet devastatingly handsome man, thinking it is something that he can handle. But Augustus’s world comes crashing down on him when his best friend succumbs to his disease, and the staying ‘dry’ just doesn’t offer him enough of a comfort when things are falling apart.

Themes:

Addiction and the emotionally broken: Augustus in his previous memoir makes no bones about how messed up he is emotionally, and in Dry, he uses it to explain how his alcoholism is his crutch to prop up the bits of him that are barely hanging together as it is. But rather than using it to control his life, Augustus finds that his addiction is controlling him, and he doesn’t particularly care much until he hits rock bottom.

Denial of death: Augustus relationships in his life with his mother and others have been, in the technical terminology, ‘fucked up’. It’s not very surprising he has a hard time with losing people in his life, and an even harder time coming to terms with the death of someone he was afraid to admit he loved so dearly. What seems self-centered and shallow, (and is, in its way), is his coping mechanism for the fact that he is terrified and heartbroken at the thought of loving someone who he cared for so deeply and who didn’t try to fuck him over.

Obsession and love: Part of addiction is your obsession for something to fill a need. Obsession isn’t limited to a drug or an emotional rush for an addict, but can be obsession with someone who you are attracted to as well. It’s hard to tell the different between love for that person and obsession, and often times the two are mixed. You don’t realize till too late, in Augustus’s case only when he realized that this person was self-destructive and was dragging Augustus along for the ride.

Recovery isn’t an easy fix: Addiction is something that people will suffer from their entire lives; it doesn’t go away with a quick stint in rehab and a pill. It’s an everyday, conscious process that allows a person to function, though they will never approach their particular addiction in anything like a normal fashion. You have to just keep picking up the pieces and keep on going, living life day by day, and setting your expectations so high you set yourself up for failure.

Every book sucks somewhere: If I had to find a sucky bit in the book, it would be that Augustus is so wonderfully, but totally, self-centered. I think it’s actually part of the point of the books, to show the author for how he sees himself. While it did make me laugh a lot, it was also, I feel, coming off a bit stereo-typical for both a New Yorker and a homosexual. It just could be that way cause the author is both, but it was nearly campy in some spots.

What did I like: Everything! I found this book to be humorous, sad, and touching at the same time. While it could be really easy to hate Augustus for being a callous, selfish bitch, he comes off with a vulnerability that makes you understand the underlying neuroses that make him who he is. He does this with a wit and self-deprecating humor that cuts through most of the harshness of his character, and makes him a very relatable person.

How would I rate this wormy book: I’d give it a FAT WORM, I want to give it a MONSTER worm, but I think that for some, less-open minded readers, frank discussion about alcoholism, homosexuality, drug use, or even AIDS might get them too worked up, so if you have any issues with any of that, (and frankly I don’t), then this isn’t the book for you. I know too many people who get caught up in all of that with Augustus Burroughs work, so if it's something you aren't comfortable with, don't read it. But if you like a dry, witty, humorous look at a person’s personal fight with his own addiction, that brings it home as both very sad and heart wrenching, but so very human, read this book. I loved it.