 2008-10-09 - Almost to close to the soul
The saying "a perfect childhood is a waste of time" points to the lack of learning of such an unlikely upbringing: No wonder Augusten has become such an awesome writer!!
Our mind suppresses bad memories, unless we dig deep. Augusten's learning and ability to dig deep (amazing recollection of early childhood) is almost to close for comfort if you have been brought up with similar, ahum, challenges. It ripped me; it pushed all my buttons, made me so angry, so sad, so scared, so alive within my own past. It was a great experience to read, absorb and subsequently move on!!
I hope that other readers "enjoy" the same and BIG Thank you to Augusten for sharing himself so courageously with us!!
 2008-10-08 - Misses the Mark
Let me preface my remarks by saying that I am a big fan of Augusten Burroughs' other works, and also that I am reviewing the audiobook version of this book. Other reviewers (and the author himself) have noted that this book is a major departure from the style of his other memoirs. Unfortunately, Burroughs' efforts at drama are not nearly as elegant or developed as his efforts at humor.
This book should have been about a boy who overcomes emotional abandonment and neglect to become a healthy whole person. Instead it is an overly wrought melodrama that often hints at a horror that is never actually shown.
Burroughs does an excellent job of creating a world through a child's eyes, with a characteristically immature sense of entitlement, self-importance and drama. As adults, we understand (and remember) such feelings and can relate to the narrator's emotional distress at the small tragedies of childhood: the death of a pet, feeling misunderstood and unloved by parents. The problem with this book is that the author can not seem to decide, in adulthood, which events were true horrors and which were just unfortunate circumstances. This confusion dilutes the potential emotional impact of his story.
The audiobook version is read by the author (as usual), but with extra melodramatic inflection. In case the reader is too dense or emotionally dead to understand, Burroughs intones, wails and gargles through prose that is pretty heavy-handed to start with. Less scenery chewing would have been a lot more effective.
On the other hand, the audiobook version includes original music that is wonderfully evocative. According to an afterward by Burroughs, the songs were written for the book, after the composers had read it. Patti Smith is still tops.
2008-10-06 - A Wolf At the Table
I laughed, I cried, I shuddered! This portrait of the father, after reading some of the other books by AB, continued to amaze me. People are so resiliant. To be able to chronicle this experience in the way he has is such a huge talent. I love AB. He certainly deserved better. I hope he is well.
 2008-10-02 - Not what I thought it would be
I love anything Augusten. Running with Scissors is still my favorite book. I think I am the only one disappointed in A Wolf at the Table. I felt throughout the book he was an annoying kid and a whiner to the end. I think I would have had more compassion if he would have covered more of exactly what his father did except ignore him. Obviously there is more to it, I needed to read it, feel it, feel for the guy. I only felt it at the end in the room with the robes, when he realized what a real father's love is.
His suggestions to his brother to kill his father, then to his father to push his mother off the bridge makes me wonder if Augusten is all there himself. I was very disappointed in the book. Although a small thin book it took me a long while to get through it waiting for the impact his other books brought me, this gave me none. I didn't care for it at all.
 2008-09-30 - Not his best, but still a remarkable read.
Well he did it. Augusten Burroughs, whose finest trait as an author of narrative nonfiction was almost ridiculous objectivity, finally succumbed to moments of self-pity. But who wouldn't? I wonder if while writing The Wolf at the Table, Burroughs simply had to show that little boy the love he so desperately craved. It's not his best work, true. In my humble opinion, his best is Dry. I am a student of writing and therefore I'm always looking at the effective use of craft and while it's difficult to pinpoint in Burroughs work (other than a knack for witty and snappy turns of phrase) I will say this. His work is difficult to put down. You can't help but turn the page, find out what happened next and how he's going to tell it. And unlike other reviewers, I stopped asking myself if it was plausible early on. Who cares? He may not be literary, he may be embellishing for drama, and he may have caved to the self-involved urges of many memoirists (ironically his major distinction previously) but Burroughs knows how to tell a tale. His readers number in the millions now, but his voice is still that of a friend confiding to a friend. Bravo, Burroughs. Now let's see some fiction.
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