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Augusten Burroughs

SFG75

SFG75

Well-Known Member
I can't say enogh about Running with Scissors. I just finished Dry and have to say that it ranks up there with Scissors in terms of being a great read with a lot of cutting edge humor. It was one of those books that you just couldn't put down and had to read the next chapter. The characters were vivid and interesting. From his friends at rehab, to the subversive mortal enemy "Rick," who was a clean cut Mormon, jealous of Augusten's success in advertising. Rick would hide bottles of liquor by Augusten's desk and dump out whole bottles of it on the floor to make him look bad. The saddest chapter was when he relapsed and his friend "Pighead" died. His friend then left him a ring of a pig's head with an inscription to stop drinking.....wow, you have to read it yourself to really get the impact of it. Darn good book. I can't say that I liked A Wolf at the Table all that much, I wish I had purchased Dry instead. At what point can an author profit off of their past before they to write about new things and move on?
 
I loved RWS and Dry. Magical Thinking was not as good. And Possible Side Effects was even worse still, I am sad to say. I have not read A Wolf at the Table yet, but I am sure I will do so sometime soon. I love Augusten as a person and I will continue to read anything he writes (including his fiction [Sellevision] and various essays published in magazines) but I do think he has mined his childhood - and even his 20s - completely dry, at this point.
 
Burroughs has said A Wolf at the Table is going to be his last nonfiction book. He'll be concentrating on fiction for a while. I have never read Sellevision so I'm not sure whether this will be good or bad.
 
Looks like a book on dysfunctional holidays will be coming out in time for the holiday season.(CLICK) I don't konw how old the post is I hyperlinked, but we'll find out soon enough I guess.
 
Augusten Burroughs is a favorite author of mine. I adored everything he has put out so far, with the exception of A Wolf at the Table. I think I was wanting it to be more funny, and it's just not a funny book - definitely a different mood than the other books.

Dry is one of my favorite books ever; I've read it 3 or 4 times now. SFG75, I agree that the Pighead portion of the book was very impactful.

Anamnesis, Sellevision is a pretty good read. It's mean-spirited and satirical. :D
 
SFG75 said:
At what point can an author profit off of their past before they to write about new things and move on?
Click to expand...

Hard to say. The more vibrant the life lived it would seem the more material there is to work with. But then it also depends on how much your readership is willing to go along with you. It kind of becomes a gimmick in the long run doesn't it? A gimmick with a shelf life, and I guess it really has more to do with the book buying public and what they want than what more material the author has to work with, and what more s/he has to say.

You run the risk of coming off as being selfish, using books and the people who buy/read them as your personal therapy session, with a limited chance for it to become a group session, where the reader has a chance to speak.

On the other hand you have authors like Sean Wilsey whose memoir, as fictionalized as it may be, leaves you wanting to read more from that writer.
 
"running with scissors" and "a wolf at the table" depressed me to an unbelievable extent but at the same time i also enjoyed his style and especially his perception at youth... in "a wolf at the table" he talks about being an infant and a toddler and the way he describes it is fantastic... the ignorance of common day items and the lack of stength when he is describing trying to pull a clothes drawer open... really appreciated the new way of story telling from him regardless of how sad it made me to think about some of the things he has been through

i havent seen the movie of "running with scissors" but i heard pretty good things about it.. i dont especially like movies based on books because they tend to lose the main plot developement and crucial character developement... anne rices "vampire chronicles" is a great exaample...
 
I thought Running with Scissors was one of the funniest books I've ever read, even though his childhood was incredibly tragic. The movie is quite good but presents Burroughs' account in a less comedic fashion. Although RWS is my favorite of his, I also loved Dry and Possible Side Effects. Have you read those?
 
i havent... i started "dry" but got sidetracked heh... te first one i read was "a wolf at the table" and then went to rws since i enjoyed it

he is definitely hilarious but i think the fact that i had an icky childhood and also have two children that i dont want to have them go through anything worse than necessary is why i get so depressed when i read his books...
 
RWS is a wonderful book. Burroughs is a comic genius, and RWS is his best book thus far, in my opinion. I've also read Possible Side Effects, Sellevision and Dry.
 
I sometimes forget his memoirs are a work of nonfiction. Between his vibrant writing style and increasingly bizarre events the books tend to read like novels. I can't help but wonder if Burroughs elaborated upon certain instances or just outright made them up . . .
 
it doesnt help that he writes in first person so well... imo a lot of the occurences are elaborations...

and yes hes funny, but when i think about the books i remember the depressing stuff way more than the funny...

i really wanna read sellevision.. that one sounds hilarious
 
I remember liking "Running with Scissors" much more than "Dry." I liked the crazy situations in Running with Scissors, and the fact that he was still a kid so there was time to make everything all better in his life. And nothing really seemed that serious. Dry was just plain depressing :-/ Then again it's been a few years since I read them, so maybe my recall is off a bit...
 
im pretty sure it was in "a wolf at the table" but i read rws and wolf at the same time so i get them mixed up but there is a part when the dad pays more attention to the dog than him and so he dresses up like a dog and then gets beat by the dad... that part sticks out SOO much in my head...

and the dead guinea pig...
 
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