Burroughs's telling of the tale alternates among hilarious, pathetic, existential and hopeful. 'The truly odd part is that I really don't know how they got there,' admits Burroughs in this autobiographical tale of being a prodigy with an extremely successful career in advertising and a drive to get as wasted as possible as often as possible. This is what Burroughs ( Running with Scissors) encountered upon returning from Minnesota's Proud Institute (supposedly the No release date has been announced.Imagine coming home to find hundreds of empty scotch bottles and 1,452 empty beer bottles in your apartment. Hayden Recovering addict who moves in with Burroughs midway through the memoir Film adaptation īurroughs is writing the script for a Showtime series based on the memoir. They meet at group therapy for alcohol/drug addicts. Foster Burroughs's love interest in the memoir. Pighead Burroughs's best friend and former love interest. Reappears in the end sober and in recovery as well. The memoir ends with Burroughs getting clean and helping another alcoholic friend of his through his recovery.Ĭharacters Augusten Main character and author of the memoir. The death of his friend sends Burroughs into a relapse, including drinking, cocaine and crack. Pighead is living with HIV, and although healthy in the beginning of the book, he eventually succumbs to the effects of HIV. Part II also shows the decline in health in Burroughs' ex-boyfriend and current friend, only named Pighead in the memoir. He meets a love interest at his group therapy sessions and takes in a fellow addict in recovery. The second part of the novel deals with Burroughs' first bout with sobriety since leaving the rehab program. 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. Certain episodes are imaginative re-creation, and those episodes are not intended to portray actual events.' Synopsis Names have been changed, characters combined, and events compressed. Īlthough 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. Dry reached number 24 on The New York Times Best Seller list for Hardcover Nonfiction.

Dry was written before Running with Scissors, but was published second. It describes the author's battle with alcoholism. Dry is a memoir written by American writer Augusten Burroughs.

Dry by augusten burroughs