Young, talented, successful, and drunk: welcome to Augusten's world. That is, until his partner at the ad agency can't cope with covering for him anymore because his drinking is so out of control. When he agrees to go to rehab (it's that or be fired), he's ready to meet Robert Downey Jr. and amass some great stories for his drinking buddy, but he finds the reality quite different.
And then he's out, back in Manhattan with a stressful job surrounded by temptation.
Think of your head as an unsafe neighborhood; don't go there alone, Rae once said.Initially, I wasn't sure how much interest I'd have in reading an alcoholic's struggle-to-get-sober story, but his writing, honesty, and sense of humor pulled me in right away.
His background, I think it's fair to say, is fairly bizarre: I'm looking forward to reading his other memoirs and I can't wait to see the film version of Running With Scissors in October.
My thanks to Voix for turning me onto this book.
One year ago at TTaT: Reading my mind
tags: books, Dry, Augusten+Burroughs
Do your recommend reading "Running with Scissors" first?
ReplyDeletei loved that book! well all of his stuff actually.
ReplyDeleteElisabeth: I haven't actually read RWS yet. I happened to see a trailer for the movie before I read Dry, but while reading it, it became obvious that RWS was based on his earlier book.
ReplyDeleteTypically I prefer to see the movie before reading the book in these situations. I'd just rather not be thinking about how the movie measures up to the book which is inevitable if the book is fresh in my mind.
That said, I read a bit of an interview with Augusten and he's really happy with how the movie turned out. He said it was like watching home movies except everyone's gorgeous.
Sizzle: It totally sucked me in; I ripped through it pretty fast.
Glad you liked it. I am so impressed with his snappy writing and vivid imagery. . . Can't wait to see the movie, and I'm waiting to read RWS, too.
ReplyDelete