Hello readers and here we are July once more, and I'm just looking forward to a few days off from the office. Le sigh... so I just finished reading Augusten Burroughs book titled "Dry". This is the third book I've read by Burroughs and I'm definitely seeing a pattern in his writing.That pattern is self destruction with a whole lot of booze and whit. His internal humor makes him such an ass but I can understand that humor as I've caught myself having similar thoughts and know friends of mine who also think and speak this way. The book is so dark and powerfully honest that at times I caught myself wondering how true Burroughs story was, as it is a memoir and I've read other books about him by him in the past.That being said I loved the story and the humor and insightful moments were so beautiful, but again I'm not sure what I read here is 100% accurate...but it had a lot of interesting moments. I really hope this guy didn't have to live all this... I say interesting as this book was about Augusten being an full blown self destructive alcoholic who in this book has finally run out of his drunk luck. In the past he's done wonderful adds and is an up and coming star in the advertistment industry, but now his drinking has lost them a client and his office tells him either sober up or you're fired...so Rehab it is for young Augusten and rehab in itself is a bizarre safe world where a few sentences, cry sessions, cigarettes, support staff, and stuffed animals seem to be the mix that can help people sober up. There are some scary moments too in sobering up like the fact some places will give patients drugs to help them deal with the pain of sobriety...doesn't this seem like they're introducing another addiction to cure one addiction? I don't know...I was confused a few times by this logic, but I’m not dealing with such a complex problem and have no training in this field so I wouldn't know or even pretend to understand the workings of these places and their methods. The story progresses of course outside of rehab and Augusten must learn to live in the real world where his every hour isn't planned and everyone around him isn't an alcoholic in recovery. Again some really beautiful scenes and the test of true love and friendship comes into play and takes us all into a very dark world where there seems like there is no escape and no happy ending. Burroughs writes so unique in his gallows humor that I can definitely see the world he is trying to explain to us, but towards the end I felt like his story just stopped...He left out what we might have witnessed in the beginning middle of the book, and brought us right to the end making me wonder if it was the same as before? A very exceptional read if you like real world, real people problems, and don't mind the ugly side of things. Also, it makes you wonder from previous books by Burrough just how this guy is still alive?
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