Author | Augusten Burroughs |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre | Memoir |
Publisher | St. Martin's Press |
June 2003 | |
Pages | 293 |
ISBN | 978-0312272050 |
813/.6 B | |
LC Class | PS3552.U745 Z465 2003 |
Dry is a memoir written by American writer Augusten Burroughs. It describes the author's battle with alcoholism. Dry was written before Running with Scissors, but was published second.[1]Dry reached number 24 on The New York TimesBest Seller list for Hardcover Nonfiction.[2]
Augusten's most recent book chronicles his experience as a closeted lifelong witch, born into a family filled with witches. By Augusten Burroughs ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2003 Like the alcohol he so enjoys, Burroughs’s story of getting dry will go straight into your bloodstream and leave you buzzing, exhilarated, and wiped out.
Although the memoir is based on actual events, the first pages include this 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.'[3]
Synopsis[edit]
The first part of the memoir centers on Burroughs' intervention by his co-workers and boss as well as his time spent at a rehab facility that caters specifically to gay and lesbian patients. The second part of the novel deals with Burroughs' first bout with sobriety since leaving the rehab program. He meets a love interest at his group therapy sessions and takes in a fellow addict in recovery. Part II also shows the decline in health in Burroughs' ex-boyfriend and current friend, only named Pighead in the memoir. Pighead is living with HIV, and although healthy in the beginning of the book, he eventually succumbs to the effects of HIV. The death of his friend sends Burroughs into a relapse, including drinking, cocaine and crack. The memoir ends with Burroughs getting clean and helping another alcoholic friend of his through his recovery.
Characters[edit]
- Augusten
- Main character and author of the memoir.
- Greer
- Burroughs's co-worker and friend. Part of the intervention
- Jim
- Mortician. Burroughs's drinking buddy. Reappears in the end sober and in recovery as well.
- Pighead
- Burroughs's best friend and former love interest.
- Foster
- Burroughs's love interest in the memoir. They meet at group therapy for alcohol/drug addicts.
- Hayden
- Recovering addict who moves in with Burroughs midway through the memoir
Film adaptation[edit]
Burroughs is writing the script for a Showtime series based on the memoir. No release date has been announced.[4]
References[edit]
- ^Mcdonald, Natalie Hope (August 13, 2003). 'Dry: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs'. Pop Matters.
- ^'Hardcover Nonfiction'. The New York Times. July 6, 2003.
- ^McElhatton, Heather (November 3, 2011). 'Truth vs. Fiction in Augusten Burroughs' memoir, 'Dry''. MPR. Retrieved May 12, 2011.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
- ^Mitchell, Wendy (October 27, 2009). 'Augusten Burroughs plans new TV shows with CBS, Showtime'. Entertainment Weekly.
See also[edit]
Talking Volumes |
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Dry Augusten Burroughs Quotes
Truth vs. Fiction in Augusten Burroughs' memoir, 'Dry'November 3, 2003
'Dry' (Courtesy of St. Martin's Press) |
Augusten Burroughs's memoir, 'Dry,' is an unflinching look at one alcoholic's crooked journey towards an unsure sobriety. Told in the first person, Burroughs takes us down a dark and harrowing path recounting his life as a strung-out, well-paid ad executive who is forced to accept treatment for his drinking problem or lose his job. It's an interesting concept, the forced epiphany, and one Burroughs doesn't take too much time to ponder. Some people have epiphanies, and others simply have epiphany thrust upon them.
Burroughs adroitly weaves back story throughout the forward action:
Dry By Augusten Burroughs Free Download
When I was thirteen, my crazy mother gave me away to her lunatic psychiatrist, who adopted me. I then lived a life of squalor, pedophiles, no school, and free pills. When I finally escaped, I presented myself to advertising agencies as a self-educated, slightly eccentric youth filled with passion, bursting with ideas. I left out the fact that I didn't know how to spell or that I'd been giving blowjobs since I was thirteen.
He ends up at the Proud Institute, a gay/lesbian rehab center in deepest, darkest Minnesota, where he learns his path to sobriety will not include modern architecture and Japanese Koi ponds, but instead indestructible dorm furniture and breaded veal cutlets with a provocative sauce of Velveeta and Half and Half.
Using the image of a sweating martini as his 'picture of calm,' and bouncing through the program like a rag doll on lithium, Burroughs begins to take part in what turns out to be a very real epiphany for him. He admits his helplessness over alcohol, accepts the bizarre rituals and daily regimes of the clinic, makes some friends with some unlikely characters, and in the end, takes one step toward the rest of his (hopefully) sober life.
Reddit where to download mac osx software. Besides being clearly, disturbingly well written, what is also fascinating about Burroughs's book, is that some of his memories are made up. There's a tiny blurb in the beginning that reads: 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.
Criticized by some for this fictional slant and applauded by others, 'Dry' sparks a debate that asks us to take a hard look at what genre the memoir really falls into. fiction, non-fiction or creative non-fiction? Download pictures from flash drive to mac. Truman Capote created the creative non-fiction genre with his horrific yet journalistic story about the murder of the Clutter family in his book 'In Cold Blood.' No one before had taken a real event and fictionalized it, so that while the plot points remained, like rungs on a ladder, the open air between the points were filled with Capote's own thoughts and ideas, though subjective they may be.
Some of Burroughs' strongest scenes and characters are made up. The woman who stands up in support group and says that even though she found a lump in her breast in the shower one morning and is living on borrowed time, she would 'rather have this one day sober than a whole lot of days drunk,' is made up. This immediately makes the reader wonder, what else is made up? What is true? But then the story sweeps you along, and the very real sentiments of the book come through, and in the end, like with all good stories, you forget to wonder, and you just read.
Pablo Picasso once said, 'Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth,' but step five in the Alcoholics Anonymous handbook states: 'We admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.' So between these two sentiments, where does Burroughs' memoir lie? Perhaps in both. Reality is messy, unpredictable, often without pattern. Some say it is the storyteller's duty to stitch a pattern from reality in order to present a picture that can be truly seen.
If we had to walk through a decade of the minutia of Burroughs' ups and downs, what we might hold in our hands in an 800-page journal instead of a novel that may encourage and influence many who read it. 'Dry' gives us a chance to walk in the shoes of one man having a hard time standing up. It takes many real events, and some not so real, and creates a vivid picture we can all see.
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