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.
Helpful Score: 4
"Ruthlessly funny...deliciously perverse...he extracts something funny from every shred of his own warped experience. Magical Thinking indeed."--People
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 :)
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 :)
Helpful Score: 3
Typical Augusten Burroughs. A quick light read that is disturbing at times but not nearly as disturbing as "Running"!
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.
Helpful Score: 1
Writes with a humorous knack. Often about gay lifestyle experience.
Helpful Score: 1
Another great collection of hilarious stories from Mr. Burroughs. I read this book in one sitting. Highly recommended!
Helpful Score: 1
I just adored this series of stories. Burroughs is always hilarious, and this was definitely laugh-out-loud funny.
Helpful Score: 1
Love A Burroughs. He is heartbreaking and funny.
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.
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.
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.
Very good book. Puts a different perspective on things. DOESNT HOLD A CANDLE to DRY, but still worth the read.
This book does not have the same wit and passion as his other books, Running with Scissors and Dry. It is fun to read about more escapades in his life as they have happened.
Pitch black humor.
I love him!! He's so quirky, and his life seems so unbelievable, but he's great - I always laugh out loud when I read him!
This is the second time I have read this book - and I really hadn't remembered much about it. It had a few very funny parts - namely the cleaning lady and the shrimp and the killing of the rat/thing. But, overall, it seemed... more arrogantly amusing than truly funny. I don't know - I just really prefer David Sedaris' writing. This book just seems like a more self-involved, graphic version of the same basic idea. Not that it was bad, at all, I did enjoy it, I just wouldn't recommend it with the same fervor that I would David Sedaris' books.
Read this after "Running" and found it to be just as funny, twisted, sick and over the top as the other. He is hilarious, though unfortunately (or not) due to the f-ed up life he led! Very quick read, laugh out loud. Favorite story in this book had to be the housecleaner one, "Debby's Requirements".
A lot like David Sedaris, which is one too many, I think.
This is a collection of short vignettes. I really enjoy Burroughs writing, insights and dry sarcasm.
I didn't enjoy this book as much as "Running With Scissors." I spent a lot of time wondering how such a self-centered man could have so many sexual partners.
I haven't read this yet but I really liked his other two non-fiction books. I was given a copy when I already had one so I thought I'd post it.
