Books News
With his fifth memoir critics are tiring of Augusten Burroughs
By M&C News
May 2, 2008, 12:29 GMT

Augusten Burroughs’ new memoir, his fifth actually, is called A Wolf at the Table and deals with more pain and suffering and dysfunction yet no critics are finding it all that funny. Go figure.

“Determinedly unfunny, awkwardly histrionic and sometimes anything but credible, it repudiates everything that put Mr. Burroughs on the map,” Janet Maslin of the NYT noted.

She then went on to state, “It’s a bad sign when a book’s cover graphic packs more of a wallop than the text does.”

As if Running With Scissors and Dry weren’t enough, Burroughs felt the need to uncover even more dirty laundry via his poor, lazy prose style once again the critics keep mentioning.

Many have noted that this is just another example of a writer using every ounce of hyperbole in his suburban childhood for attention. Yet one critic actually bought into the book being overwhelmingly “sad”, using the example of the young child having to eat food straight from a can.

Yes, right up there with starving children in Africa. So critics aren't buying it. Hopefully readers won't as well.

Click here to read the review.