30 April 2011

Of sobriety, relapses, coke, and countless martinis.


I had the chance to pick up this book when I went to the public library and visited the used books section. I'm not gonna lie, what made me buy it was the book cover. It had one of those titles that would make you think "what is this book about?" I just thought there's something controversial about it. So I paid for it and started reading it. Once I began, I couldn't put it down. It was raw, completely straight to the point. Augusten Burroughs, in my opinion wrote without holding back, almost aggressive. The no-beating-around-the-bush kind of writing got me totally hooked.

Dry is about Burroughs' journey to sobriety with a lot of side stories in tow. It's not your stereotypical autobiography (which I think isn't) that just tells a story about one person -- it has a lot of character development. First off, the author of this book is an accomplished advertisement copywriter (he's responsible for Nike's Just Do It ad) but has a little bit of drinking problem. The other characters were very interesting because of their differences -- there's the undertaker Jim who he drinks with, the ill investment banker Pighead, the bubbly Brit Hayden, and the walking Banana Republic ad Foster. The twists and reality happening in this book got me excited and I couldn't wait to read what happens next.

I'm not going to go into detail of what happens in this book, but it was definitely an awesome read. I picked up good bits and pieces of lessons while reading this book. It made me realize what addiction does to you and how it can ruin everything for you. You do not have to be an addict, or even a recovering alcoholic to be able to relate to this. To Augusten Burroughs, kudos, and I want to kill myself for finding and reading this book just now. Stay away from the storm and keep yourself dry! :)

P.S.
This does not exactly have a happy ending :(

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