About the book:
Augusten Burroughs shocking, darkly hilarious memoir of his chaotic childhood with his eccentric, deeply dysfunctional family. From his mothers bizarre poet-lover to the wildly unpredictable household, Burroughs recounts his survival with razor-sharp wit and surprising tenderness.
Brutally honest, absurdly funny, and strangely life-affirming.
A cult classic in memoir writing that reads like a novel.
Condition:
Great secondhand condition.
Wear to cover.
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About the author:Augusten Burroughs (1965 to present)
Augusten Burroughs was born Christopher Robison on October 23, 1965, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and endured a chaotic, often traumatic childhood marked by family dysfunction and institutionalization. After dropping out of school and working in advertising in New York City, he transformed his painful experiences into raw, darkly humorous memoirs. These early hardships, combined with his journey toward sobriety and self-acceptance, shaped a worldview that embraces honesty, resilience, and the redemptive power of storytelling in the face of personal chaos.
Burroughs achieved breakthrough success with Running with Scissors (2002), a wildly candid memoir of his bizarre upbringing that became a major bestseller and was adapted into a film. His confessional, witty, and unflinchingly self-lacerating style blends memoir with novelistic flair, making the grotesque and the painful strangely entertaining. Major achievements include popularizing a new wave of brutally honest literary memoirs and building a devoted readership through his fearless exploration of mental health, addiction, and family trauma.
Influenced by David Sedaris, Mary Karr, Tobias Wolff, and the confessional traditions of writers like Sylvia Plath and Elizabeth Wurtzel, Burroughs also drew from the black humor of Kurt Vonnegut and the raw energy of punk narratives. He, in turn, has influenced contemporary memoirists and essayists exploring dysfunction, queerness, and recovery, including figures like Melissa Broder, Samantha Irby, and many voices in modern autofiction. Adjacent authors include his contemporaries such as James Frey (amid controversy), Jeannette Walls, and fellow chroniclers of eccentric American families like Dave Eggers and Alison Bechdel.
Recurring themes in Burroughs work include dysfunctional families, addiction and recovery, mental illness, queer identity, resilience through humor, and the transformative act of writing ones truth. Major works include Running with Scissors (2002), Dry (2003), Magical Thinking (2004), Possible Side Effects (2006), Toil & Trouble (2019), and Lust & Wonder (2016).
Now living in Connecticut with his husband, Augusten Burroughs continues to write memoirs, essays, and fiction while maintaining a strong public presence through readings and media. His legacy as a pioneer of unflinchingly candid modern memoir endures, and his unique contribution lies in turning personal wreckage into darkly funny, deeply human narratives that offer hope and connection to readers navigating their own chaos.
