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Magical Thinking
Magical Thinking
Author: Augusten Burroughs
Augusten Burroughs continues his series of memoirs with this wild collection of stories. Here Burroughs confesses to various outrageous thoughts, including his desire to murder his cleaning lady and an obsession with becoming a transsexual.
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ISBN-13: 9780312315955
ISBN-10: 0312315953
Publication Date: 10/1/2005
Pages: 288
Rating:
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 276

3.9 stars, based on 276 ratings
Publisher: Picador
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Magical Thinking on + 69 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
Hysterical and touching. Burroughs has a gift for writing and a life that begs to be recorded. I love his work and this book was fantastic.
candieb avatar reviewed Magical Thinking on + 239 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
Okay Okay... I was one of those people that read Running with Scissors and hated it. I still do, I think it was too over-the-top. I know he says it all really happened and I hate to say I don't believe him, but well... I don't believe ALL of it. How's that? I bought his other books, but they'd been gathering dust. I dunno, I just wasn't up for reading more weird wacky maybe-half-true stuff. Then I read Dry. Now I've read Magical Thinking. The man can write, dammit. And his brutal, adult, honesty hits you square in the nose. Oh yes, yes yes, he's funny, but most of his stories have an undertone to them, an almost moral (I wonder if he knew that when he wrote it?). Even the funny housekeeper (my favorite), it shows what a pushover we all can be when people are pushy with us, but it also shows that all of us have a spine and we use it. I dunno, maybe I read too much into it.

This was by far my favorite book. I was hoping it would be a continuation of Dry, about him making his way back from where he left of in Dry, it was, kind of. It was a book of short story memoirs, I suppose. I'm going to read the next one soon, hopefully that will answer my questions more fully :)
reviewed Magical Thinking on + 22 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
"Ruthlessly funny...deliciously perverse...he extracts something funny from every shred of his own warped experience. Magical Thinking indeed."--People
reviewed Magical Thinking on + 75 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Typical Augusten Burroughs. A quick light read that is disturbing at times but not nearly as disturbing as "Running"!
reviewed Magical Thinking on + 106 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
I loved Running with Scissors, and this memoir-like multiple-story book is at least as riveting, if not more so. Hilarious and thoughtful.
Read All 21 Book Reviews of "Magical Thinking"

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sibidy avatar reviewed Magical Thinking on + 11 more book reviews
This is an honest book. Maybe the author sometimes tries be someone he's not -like we all do on occasion- but his writing does not try to be something it isn't. This book is humorous, satisfying, and perceptive.
buzzby avatar reviewed Magical Thinking on + 6062 more book reviews
A lot like David Sedaris, which is one too many, I think.
sharalli avatar reviewed Magical Thinking on + 16 more book reviews
Definitely worth reading - This book was pretty hilarious!

I read Running With Scissors.. and it was Ok. Very interesting in a screwed-up/self-indulgent kind of way.
Then I read Dry. Much better.. it showed a strange, but really cool insight in his drunken antics, his quest to get sober & the resulting craziness from that.

THEN comes Magical Thinking. This isn't your traditional read AT ALL. Each chapter is pretty unrelated to the previous & following chapters, yet it still kind of follows the timeline from boyhood to present. Whether the chapter is about male baldness, or some horrific date he went on, or his fight against a mouse he found in his bathtub, the thought process & sarcasm he has about everything is hilarious & addicting.

If you enjoy memoirs, or a general sarcastic outlook on the mundane - this is the book for you.
reviewed Magical Thinking on + 10 more book reviews
Pitch black humor.

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