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vivid and impassioned
“Augusten Burroughs conveys his life as an alcoholic with a clarity and a gritty honesty that helps to open up the constant struggle he faces. His revealing look at his life and the road he stumbles down give a deeper understanding of how extreme the need of alcoholics can be. Reading this book was like being taken along a path that I wasn't sure I could follow. His story is filled with humor and a desire to grasp a part of life that he sensed was missing yet had no idea what it was he was even trying to find. From his denial of any problem associated with drinking, his total ability to believe that he was functioning well, to the clarity of what his life had become and where he was headed, Augusten Burroughs grabs the reader with an intensity that is vivid and impassioned. ”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-10-29. -
His best
“This is my personal favorite of all of Burroughs books, and one of my favorite books, period. Many reviewers have noted how funny it is, and indeed it is. But I love it best for it's searing honesty, it's brave self appraisal and it's beautiful and poignant depiction of a very important friendship. Bless and keep you, Augusten. ”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-10-26. -
Scissors 2
“Augusten Burroughs is very funny. He's sarcastic, a snob, and has a unique world view. This volume finds our hero, after surviving his outrageously bizarre childhood as a twenty-something successful advertising copywriter throwing back a liter of scotch, along with a handful of benadryl, (and who knows what else) every night.After an intervention by his coworkers he flies off to rehab in Minnesota.The entire book was insightful and funny; but I thought the first half was the most interesting - where he was boozing and then going through rehab. The second half details a few romances and I had trouble remaining interested. I don't think I am a homophobe - I think my interest would wane just as much if they were hetero romances. But of course you have to finish to find out how it turns out.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-10-09. -
Fabulous
“Augusten Burroughs is a testiment to the human spirit. His honesty and amazing wit are what make his books so special and DRY is no exception. This is an honest look at addiction, personel struggle and sobriety done with just the right amount of warped humor.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-09-16. -
0 of 2 members found this review helpful.
1 Star for Memoir 3 for Fiction Lite
“I started to suspect something was wrong with this book about 15 pages in. It didn't read like a memoir--the story though entertaining felt really contrived, fake. So I scanned back to the introductory pages and there it was, the Author's Note: "This memoir is based on my experiences over a ten-year period. Names have been changed, characters combined, and events compressed. Certain episodes are imaginative re-creation, and those episodes are not intended to portray actual events."
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-08-16.
This book is not a memoir. It's a fictional story strung together from some real life inspiration. In his attempt to entertain and keep this story at a nice clip, Burroughs barely dips below the surface of what kind of emotional issues he's dealing with. We all know about his insane childhood from "running with scissors" which he re-caps, and he mentions his loneliness here and there, but that's about it. There's isn't anything revelatory about any of it, how he's coping with his past emotional trauma but through drinking and his stint in rehab.
He's pretty cheeky all the way through the narrative. But it's lacking in the honesty of a memoir, b/c it's so very obvious he's made up a lot of scenarios in the book. So I don't trust him, I'm skeptical of how much he's exaggerated and stretched even seemingly honest moments because I don't trust him and I don't like feeling duped into some story someone is making up under the auspicious of memoir.
It's fiction lite. It's "Leaving Las Vegas" with some self-deprecating humor, i'll give it 3 stars for that.
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