Dry: A Memoir
The “recovered alcoholic fighting to stay sober” tale is not new territory, so Burroughs isn’t sharing something new with his readers. What Burroughs does share in Dry is an abundance of wit and a central character that has a knack of finding himself in sometimes less than desirable situations and relationships.
We begin finding Augusten earning a handsome living as an ad writer for a top New York agency, but his life is centered on his next drink and a generous, if not borderline insane, collection of empty Dewars bottles littering every available space of his modest apartment. Burroughs begins showing up for work hung over and at times still a little drunk from his previous night’s activities, thus affecting his performance and work relationships—so he grudgingly agrees to ship off to a rehab facility in Minnesota.
Over the course of a month, Augusten is sober and back home ready to face life as a recovering alcoholic. Or so he thinks.
The tone of Dry is at times too odd, with a protagonist who isn’t always likeable or admirable, but we remain sympathetic because we see a man finding his own salvation on a path that is well trod but still poignant.