Augusten Burroughs made me understand what it was to have a ‘favourite’ author.  I hadn’t had one before - lots I liked but none whom I’d single out above all others and pick their books for a desert island over a hair brush.  ’Dry’ is what got me hooked.

Autobiographical, it follows his being forced into rehab by work because of his alcohol problem and finding it to be the opposite of the trendy, spot-the-celebrity spa that he had in mind.  Dysfunctional friends, agonisingly tedious but significant therapy follows, and then he has to stay on the wagon all on his own.

This should be an awful book - bleak, barely comprehensible and depressing, much like Burrough’s troubled childhood.  However, he writes with such sharp wit and a blade of humour through his words that the poignant parts stand out that much more and the rest will have you laughing out loud.  This is what good writing is, and this is what you can come back from with a sense of humour.

From the OneBook website.

Social Bookmarking:

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 26th, 2008 at 9:17 am and is filed under Book Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.