On Augusten Burroughs [Revisited]

Out of the four books that Augusten Burroughs has written, three of them are his memoirs. The first one [Running with Scissors] takes place when he's a little boy and goes all the way until he's around sixteen years old; The second one [Dry] is when he's in his twenties living in NYC and his struggle with alcohol, among other things. The last one [Magical Thinking] is a series of short stories that can be traced to his two previous books.


If you're planning to pick up his books, you should start in order, so that you can understand most of the things that he talks about. Even more so, there should be a disclaimer in Magical Thinking saying that in order to enjoy it, you have to read his two previous books before, and not the other way around as I did. Otherwise you'll end up thinking that it is a book that anyone could have written: some unconnected stories about a guy's life.

But Running and Dry are truly hilarious books. Crazy like no other memoir I've ever read, but written in a way that has you laughing and gasping every other page. Running is a more fun book to read and would give you an introduction of what this guy is up to. I'm not gona spoiled the book to anyone, but there's a part near the end of the book when he's with Natalie in a motel that had laughing out loud and I had to re-read it several times. Hilarious. Dry is a much more interesting book and he develops more his self [the character], and even though it gives you flashes of what his life had been up to that point, you should read Running first.

I would like to read a book about his years between Running and Dry, a big gap in his life, and which I believe would be filled with perhaps as much crazy and fun stuff as the other two.

After reading all his non-fiction books, I understand now why Magical was published: after the success of his two previous memoirs his agent should've called him telling him that he was hot, that people were buying his books like crazy and that it was a perfect timing to launch a new one. Mr. Burroughs should've told his agent that those books take time, that he cannot get one out of his sleeve, but due to the insistence of his agent and the prospect of selling quite a few thousand books he settle for a compilation of some of his stories. Not a bad idea, but they forgot to write a disclaimer in the cover.

Failure to comply with my advise, my dear friends, would lead you to write a review like this one.