Besides A Thousand Splendid Suns, my incredible read of the summer, I found another one simultaneously that I am absolutely in love with. The book: Dry by Augusten Burroughs.
Dry, the follow-up memoir to the widely popular Running with Scissors, introduces a new, bizarre chapter into Burroughs life, a chapter that is all about alcoholism. Personally, I was engrossed in the book, waking up in the morning to immediately continue reading where I left off. Addiction to that degree is not something that is utterly familiar to me, so I was astounded to read about the serious implications of addiction.
I wouldn't consider myself a heavy drinker, even at 21, but the memoir really made me think whenever I would even take a glass of wine. I now look at drinking in the perspective of someone who is dependent on the drink, who craves the drink, and who shakes and convulses when they experience withdrawal from the drink. I can't imagine getting to that point where you need something so bad to just function normally.
For those who have not read either memoir, I suggest you do so. Running with Scissors was really bizarre--I won't lie to you--but I liked that break from fiction to something absolutely uncanny. It was so strange that it made my life feel normal, perhaps a comfort to some people who feel that they are the weirdest person with the weirdest problems who come from the weirdest family. Trust me: Burroughs might have you beat.
His writing is so captivating. He actually encourages me to write about myself. It just seems so easy to him, so natural, like he was meant to write and meant to live a bizarre life to translate to others who need clarity or an escape. He seems like such an average guy in his picture, but I would give anything just to sit down with him and talk for hours. He seems intelligent in a different way than others, a different way that makes me curious.
Well, now I'm hooked on Burroughs and hooked on memoirs. I just picked up a few more memoirs at Barnes and Noble that I'm about to dive into; I'll actually blog about shortly after this post.
For those who have read either book, what were your reactions? What did you think? Do you like it/them or is it too strange for you? Or, any comments on addiction or alcoholism?
1 comment:
i began to read this book, one summer afternoon. Didn't get too far, but seemed like it would lead to becoming a good read...
Post a Comment