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| Author: Augusten Burroughs
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $11.70
You Save: $13.25 (53%)
New (58) Used (25) Collectible (11) from $10.69
Avg. Customer Rating:  116 reviews
Sales Rank: 2329
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.1
ISBN: 0312342020
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780312342029
ASIN: 0312342020
Publication Date: April 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 What happened to Augusten? September 12, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I was his biggest fan. I'm on his fan club e-list. I watched Running with Scissors DESPITE the bad reviews. I made my book club read some of his work. I read, and loved, his brother's book. And then I started the audio version of this book this morning.
First off, he reads the book like the listener is a 4-year-old.
Secondly, the idiotic musical introduction at the beginning was far from necessary. Nor did it add anything to the book.
Thirdly, I think you can only obsess about your family so much. We know he had a horrid childhood and adolescence. Perhaps it's time for him to move on.
Truthfully, I couldn't finish it. Perhaps Augusten Burroughs needs to take a few lessons from David Sedaris or his brother. Surely, he can do better than this.
A Joker at the Word Processor September 11, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This "book" was laughable. If it hadn't already been proven in court that Burroughs fabricated portions of his previous memoirs, then this piece of tripe would have done it. Besides the obviously ludicrous "memories" such as recalling the day he took his first steps, how does the author expect that we will believe these stories of his supposedly wretched home life when it can't possibly have happened as he states? Throughout the story he claims to hear his parents calling him by his name, Augusten. He details the way they articulate it, "August-EN" and claims to feel horrid emotions at the way they say his name. Yet his name was Christopher then, since Augusten Burroughs was the name he invented for himself later in life. A false memory.
The author also takes the normal slings and arrows of childhood and exaggerates them to a confounding degree. So his father didn't let him put the snacks he wanted into the grocery cart? Every parent knows that you have to limit what a kid wants to buy at the supermarket or the child will throw every kind of sugary snack in there. This incident is just one of many in which Burroughs takes the most ordinary and trivial of childhood incidents and tries to make them into something sinister.
The whole book was awful and, despite my usual rule to finish a book I have started, about 2/3rds through I just had to end the misery. At least I only took it out from the library and didn't spend my money on this lousy garbage.
 Heartbreaking, Gut-Wrenching September 6, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Those looking for a Dave Pelzer-worthy nightmare of parental abuse can look elsewhere. Instead, what is most horrifying about Augusten Burroughs' father is what he DIDN'T do. By virtually withholding all love and affection from his younger son, he created a hole that Burroughs in turn tried to fill with improper relationships, alcohol, and drugs.
Burroughs conveys the horror of his childhood with stark vividness, successfully portraying the emotions and desires of the child he was. A pet dog forced to live outside and refused medical care, a guinea pig left without food and water, a son denied even the barest scraps of love, until he is forced to snuggle with a "father" he has created from old clothes sprayed with aftershave.
This is truly a heartbreaking work of staggering genius, gut-wrenching in its honesty.
Is this book an example of "Creative Nonfiction?" September 3, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I disliked this book so much that I didn't even finish it. Mr. Burroughs has clearly run out of material from his own life and seems unable or unwilling to try fiction again. The thing I find most disturbing about this 'memoir' is that I saw Mr. Burroughs at a book reading when Magical Thinking was released and he spoke about his father and how they had reconciled. He also mentioned that he was working on this book at the time and that it had already been optioned to be filmed by a major studio, which was pretty impressive considering the book hadn't even been completed. I wonder how much of his recollection was influenced by the notion that A Wolf at the Table was going to be a movie (although that seems unlikely now, given the critical drubbing the book has received and the poor box office performance of "Running With Scissors.") In fact, during the Q&A, an audience member asked what he thought of "creative nonfiction" writers like David Sadaris (a writer who admits to changing his stories based on audience reactions at readings) and Mr. Burroughs said he had no problem with either the term or concept as long as the book is entertaining. Unfortunately, this book is not.
 Why............... September 1, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
are people like Burroughs' father allowed to procreate? This story was so sad, but there were amusing moments. I am amazed that one can come through a childhood like his and still feel such obvious love for his parents (I blame his mother too). It's a tribute to his character that he was able to survive and be successful in his life after the madness he was exposed to. Disturbing as this book was, I have always loved his writing and look forward to his next book.
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