I haven't written many reviews of biographies or memoirs and I'm not quite sure how to structure this or where to start so please bear with me.
The Blurb You may not know it, but you've met Augusten Burroughs. You\ve seen him in the street, in bars, on the underground, at restaurants: a twenty-something guy, nice suit, works in advertising. Regular. Ordinary. But when the ordinary person had two drinks, Augusten had twelve; when the ordinary person went home at midnight, Augusten never went home at all. At the request (well it wasn't really a request) of his employers, Augusten lands in rehab, where his dreams of group therapy with Robert Downey Jr are dashed by the grim reality of fluorecent lighting and paper hospital slippers. But when Augusten is forced to examine himself, that's when he finds himself in the worst trouble of all. Because when his thirty days are up, he has to return to his same druken life- and live it sober.
Who Is Augusten Burroughs? Burroughs is the son of poet and writer Margaret Robison and the late John G. Robison, head of the philosophy department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is also the younger brother of John Elder Robison. He was actually born as Christopher Robinson.
I first came across Augusten Burroughs when I read his first memoir, Running with Scissors, a few years ago. running With Scissors is the memoir relating to his crazy childhood. When after his parents split his mother sent him to live with her psychiatrist's family, where there weren't many rules, he didn't have to go to school, the Christmas decorations were never taken down, an electroshock therapy machine was kept under the stairs. During his time in the house he kept a journal using a dictaphone as he was illiterate, in his teens he was raped by the pedophile that lived in the shed who he then embarked on a relationship with. Augusten finally escapes the craziness at 18. Dry takes Augusten's life story up from his early 20's. After making his own way to New York at 19, learning to read and write he blagged his way into an advertising job and is now on an award winning creative team. As well as his memoir's Burroughs has also written a novel, Sellivision (I have not yet read this) and Running With Scissors has been made into a film which was released earlier this year.
Plot So here we catch up with Augusten at the age of 25, he's now got a highly paid job as one half of a creative team in the fast paced world of advertising. The other half of the creative team, Greer, is getting mighty annoyed with Augusten constantly turning up for work smelly of drink, unwashed and in unclean clothes. Augusten doesn't see the problem, so what if he drinks? He's young, he's single. when he starts turning up in clothes he's slept in and being late to meetings, Greer has had enough and decides to go to their employers. Augusten is then given an ultimatum 30 days in rehab or no job Augsten chooses to spend his rehab at the Proud Institute, a rehab facility for homosexual men and women. He thinks it's going to a fabulous holiday with sauna's and a pool and even jokes with his drinking buddy, Jim that he might meet some famous people there. when he reaches Proud he's shocked that the place isn't how he imagined but decides he'll give it 24 hours, after all he doesn't really need to be there. Yet during a group therapy session something inside him clicks and he realizes he does have a problem after all. the therapy and people he meets in rehab help him to reassess his life but when the time comes to leave Augusten feels pretty scared. Upon leaving Augusten finds out he\'ll have to attend AA meetings and group therapy for the rest of his life, yet he's also quite pleased as everything seems better sober, colours, tastes and smells. He is also ables to reconnect with his best friend, Pighead, (also his ex) who is HIV positive. A friend he made in rehab, Hayden, comes to live with him for a while and they are a great support system for each other with Hayden acting as a conscience, especially when Augusten meets Foster (a crack addict) in group therapy and begins a relationship with him, Hayden remains the voice of reason. When he returns to work Augusten is met by a huge challenge, an ad campaign for a German beer but also the fact that one of his colleagues is planting alcohol around his office. It was never going to be easy to resist a drink but things get worse when Hayden goes back to live in London, Pighead's health take a turn for the worse and Foster starts using again.
My Experience Running with Scissors is one of the best memoirs I have ever read, even though at the time I had no idea who Augusten Burroughs was, so when I spotted this on readitswapit.com i knew I had to read it. I have to say I was not disapointed. Despite the seriousness of the subject matter Burroughs still manages to write with a sense of humor and his own personal thoughts gives the reader a real insight into the mind of an alcoholic and makes the book utterly compelling. if you have not read Running With Scissors please don't be put off reading Dry, any memory\'s from childhood that Augusten refers to in this book also come with a recap. It\'s gritty and real but also pretty funny. A must read for anyone who likes biographies.
Other Info Some of the names in the book have been changed to protect people but the book is dedicated to George Stathkis (Pighead) ISBN 1843541858 price :rrp £7.99
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