Dry

Dry (2003), by American author Augusten Burroughs, is a darkly humorous memoir detailing the author’s long and painful road from addiction to sobriety. An unflinching look into the destructive world of alcoholism and emotional trauma, it is the follow-up to his critically acclaimed 2002 memoir, Running with Scissors. Despite the author’s disclaimer that it includes some “imaginative re-creation,” Dry is nonetheless a powerful glimpse into one man’s struggle with and eventual triumph over addiction.

This guide references the 2003 Macmillan paperback edition.

Content warning: The memoir addresses the author’s experiences of childhood sexual abuse.

Summary

Augusten Burroughs, a New York advertising copywriter, opens his memoir with a critical look at the industry built on attractive unrealities. A junior copywriter at 19, Burroughs is now 24 and hates the hypocrisy and artifice at the heart of advertising. Nevertheless, he’s good at what he does, and he earns a good salary, so he perseveres—using alcohol to cope with the stress.

His go-to drinking partner is Jim, a mortician. One night, they drink until 4:00am despite Burroughs’s early workday the next morning. He arrives for a client meeting still drunk, and his partner, Greer, is forced to cover for him. After missing another meeting the next day, Greer and their boss Elenor confront him about his drinking. They strongly suggest rehab if he wants to keep his job, so he reluctantly agrees.

He schedules his 30-day stay at the Proud Institute, a recovery clinic in Minnesota catering to a gay clientele, assuming it will be “like going to a spa” (27). As the first day of rehab nears, he reflects on the causes of his alcoholism: the aesthetics of the drinking experience, a popular culture that normalizes the addiction, and an abusive father who scarred him with cigarette burns. The narrative then introduces Pighead, a former-romantic-interest-turned-friend who is living with HIV. Because of Pighead’s diagnosis, Burroughs finds constant excuses to avoid seeing him.

When Burroughs checks into the Proud Institute, he is disheartened by its shabby, industrial appearance and even more so by the cliché 12-step routines and aphorisms. He imagines not lasting more than a day. However, he meets others like himself—former cynics, now devoted believers in the recovery process—who urge patience. Eventually, after hearing so many addiction horror stories (stories he can relate to) combined with one-on-one and group therapy, Burroughs begins to see the value of rehab. On day 20, he meets a new patient, Hayden, a kindred spirit—angry, cynical, wanting to leave—and he becomes Hayden’s de facto big brother, ushering him through the initial difficulties, urging him to give it time.

When Burroughs is released from rehab, he returns to a shockingly filthy apartment: empty scotch bottles everywhere, swarms of fruit flies, barely a path to walk. He spends hours cleaning the apartment, determined to make a fresh start. He attends daily AA meetings plus one-on-one and group therapy. One day in group therapy, Burroughs meets Foster, a “painfully handsome” man with a crack cocaine addiction, and the two strike up a tentative rapport. Soon after, when Hayden is released from rehab, Burroughs invites him to stay in his apartment so they can keep each other sober.

At work, Burroughs and Greer’s newest client is a German beer company, which makes Burroughs nervous. Greer, while happy about Burroughs’s sobriety, now realizes the sheer number and variety of potential pitfalls her partner must face. The client is demanding and difficult, but Burroughs resists all temptation to drink. Meanwhile, Burroughs and Foster dip their toes into relationship waters, despite their therapist’s stern admonition against it.

Burroughs’s sobriety survives all tests: the problems at work (both his client and a subversive attempt by someone in the office to sabotage his recovery), Foster’s constant relapses, and a visit to a bar to meet Jim’s new girlfriend. However, Pighead’s health deteriorates, and Burroughs suddenly finds himself on shaky ground. Hayden, his anchor up until now, takes a job in London and leaves him without a support network. Foster cannot stay away from the crack, and his “former” abusive ex-boyfriend shows up at Burroughs’s door. When Pighead is admitted to the hospital, Burroughs’s resolve snaps, and he starts drinking again. With Foster his only comfort, he starts smoking crack as well. He finally visits Pighead, who is now comatose in the hospital; Burroughs’s guilt, loneliness, and alcoholism coalesce into a vast, emotional shipwreck. Pighead dies during the night.

Burroughs’s relapse lasts nearly a year, during which time he nearly dies. Then one day, a jeweler calls to inform him that Pighead left him a gift. Barely able to get out of bed, Burroughs shambles to the jeweler, who gives him a large, gold pig’s head with the inscription: “I’M WATCHING YOU. NOW STOP DRINKING” (282). The gift releases a tsunami of pent-up emotions, and Burroughs is finally able to face his own grief. Although he drinks for a few more days, he can see a new path toward sobriety opening before him. A year later, both he and Jim regularly attend AA meetings, supporting each other, lamenting the loss of their former lives but grateful to be sober.