Augusten Burroughs, A Wolf at the Table (2008)

I read this book after reading Running With Scissors, thinking that I would get better insight into the author's experience of his father.

Though Burroughs was clearly unsatisfied with his relationship with his father, this book does not illustrate the supposed magnitude of his father's "evilness". Burroughs was afraid that his father was homocidal, but failed to convey that sentiment in this story. Yes, he was an unaffectionate & unpleasant person, but evil? The only thing that suggests malice is the account of his father letting the guinea pig starve to death. I'm not saying that letting a small, defenseless animal suffer is forgiveable. I just didn't feel the fear that I expected to feel from reading this memoir.

Burroughs's writing is filled with incredible detail about events in his childhood. He includes dialog, facial expressions, hand gestures - even birds singing in the trees. I find myself trying desperately to recreate an event from my own youth with such precision, failing every time. After reading two of Burroughs "memoirs", I'm more inclined to call them novels with autobiographical undertones.

This book was passed on to Liane Kido.