Running With Scissors
If you haven't read anything by Augusten Burroughs...go and buy his books. All of them. NOW. Start with "Sellevision", his first short story, just to get a taste of where his head is at. Then read "Running With Scissors", the story of his growing-up years...
This is a man whose parents were both...unstable (to be polite), and placed him in the care of the family phychiatrist, a man who was none to well himself, with an equally screwed-up family. Wacky hijinks ensue. A few examples: by his early teens he was already well on his way to a life as an alcoholic and drug addict, his shrink/adoptive father convinced him to attempt suicide as a way to be excused from school, and his first boyfriend was a mid-30s pedophile. This is the story presented in "Running...", and has been adapted into the recently-released movie.
The man is a genius. He not only survived a life which was insane at the best of times and nightmarish at the worst, but he did so with his sense of humor and irony intact, turning his story into a series of intensely honest, introspective, occasionally tragic, and fucking HILARIOUS novels.
I have mixed feelings about the movie. It presents Augusten as a normal kid who was sucked into a surreal and quite unhealthy world; when in fact he was just as messed up as the people around him. On the other hand, it built up the peripheral characters, turning them from props into much more realized people. Reading the book, it's easy to see them as caricatures and as the "villains" of the story; the movie gives them more depth and humaizes them, despite thei craziness.
The latest issue of Xtra! gives a review of the movie that echoes my own feelings, so rather than plagiarize it, here's a link:
http://www.xtra.ca/public/viewstory.aspx?AFF_TYPE=3&STORY_ID=2261&PUB_TEMPLATE_ID=2
The book "Dry" picks up where "Running..." leaves off: the story of his young adulthood, his battles with his many neuroses and addictions, and his eventual recovery. "Magical Thinking" and "Possible Side Effects" are both collections of short stories taken, in no particular order, from various points in his life.
David Sedaris fans would love Augusten's writing; their life experiences have some interesting parallels and their writing reflects that; believe it or not, Augusten seems a little more upbeat, whereas Sedaris seems to have a more jaded sense of humor about his experiences.
Go read him! And see his movie! You'll thank me for the tip.
This is a man whose parents were both...unstable (to be polite), and placed him in the care of the family phychiatrist, a man who was none to well himself, with an equally screwed-up family. Wacky hijinks ensue. A few examples: by his early teens he was already well on his way to a life as an alcoholic and drug addict, his shrink/adoptive father convinced him to attempt suicide as a way to be excused from school, and his first boyfriend was a mid-30s pedophile. This is the story presented in "Running...", and has been adapted into the recently-released movie.
The man is a genius. He not only survived a life which was insane at the best of times and nightmarish at the worst, but he did so with his sense of humor and irony intact, turning his story into a series of intensely honest, introspective, occasionally tragic, and fucking HILARIOUS novels.
I have mixed feelings about the movie. It presents Augusten as a normal kid who was sucked into a surreal and quite unhealthy world; when in fact he was just as messed up as the people around him. On the other hand, it built up the peripheral characters, turning them from props into much more realized people. Reading the book, it's easy to see them as caricatures and as the "villains" of the story; the movie gives them more depth and humaizes them, despite thei craziness.
The latest issue of Xtra! gives a review of the movie that echoes my own feelings, so rather than plagiarize it, here's a link:
http://www.xtra.ca/public/viewstory.aspx?AFF_TYPE=3&STORY_ID=2261&PUB_TEMPLATE_ID=2
The book "Dry" picks up where "Running..." leaves off: the story of his young adulthood, his battles with his many neuroses and addictions, and his eventual recovery. "Magical Thinking" and "Possible Side Effects" are both collections of short stories taken, in no particular order, from various points in his life.
David Sedaris fans would love Augusten's writing; their life experiences have some interesting parallels and their writing reflects that; believe it or not, Augusten seems a little more upbeat, whereas Sedaris seems to have a more jaded sense of humor about his experiences.
Go read him! And see his movie! You'll thank me for the tip.