Picador 2002, 304 pagesWell, I have finally finished this book... and it has made me question my enduring, indiscriminating love of the memoir genre. I think I need to take a break for a while.
What is it about 'memoir' that captures me in an instant? I think it is incredibly brave of anyone to honestly disclose not only true facts, but deep, personal reflections on those truths. The genre of memoir demands honesty that is not masked even by layers of self-deprecating humor. Authors like Anne Lamott and David Sedaris (among many others) have mastered this genre.
Running with Scissors, from the beginning, held potential. Augusten Burroughs lived what seems to have been a hellish life from a very young age, yet managed to survive. What it misses, in my opinion, is an element of humor to mask the horrors. Or, if not humor, the other end of the spectrum in which Burroughs would divulge some great truth learned from it all. He hits neither mark for me. At no moment did I laugh out loud; any laughter was nervous and born out of uncomfortable disbelief. At points I had a hard time believing that what I was reading was truth. Instead Burroughs sits his narrative in this matter of fact world that exudes "chip on my shoulder" in a rather off-putting way. He ends the crazy tales with two sentences that demonstrate this quite well: "I threw the meat in my cart. And moved on."
Which, I think, is what I will do as well.
3 comments:
there's quite a bit of speculation as to how much truth burroughs included in this memoir, and i guess there was some huge lawsuit over it (which he won). oh well. now i know not to waste my time on it. :)
as a side note, i am a wee bit interested in reading Burrough's latest book, "wolf at the table." i hear it i garnering much more controversy, and is a quite brutal portrayal of his father. i wonder what his writing is like when he is not unsuccessfully riding some line between funny and heartbreaking.
I never was interested in reading this book or watching the movie...don't know why, just never grabbed me. Now I won't even give it a second thought. :-)
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