A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father
by Augusten Burroughs
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Book Reviews of A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father
Book Review: Impressive
Summary: 4 Stars
So, I'm giving this a 4 star review for a couple of reasons:
-I expected a very different collection based on Burrough's other books. Don't get me wrong; it's nice to see versatility from an author. But as a regular reader, I feel a little side-swiped, as it were. 3 stars here.
-The stories themselves are well written and engaging. 4 stars there.
-Being a child of an alcoholic father and emotionally abusive mother, these stories definitely hit home for me. What impressed me most was not just Burrough's honesty (because let's face it: its never easy to talk about your family's dirty, nasty, skeletal laundry) but the general tone of forgiveness that carries throughout. I don't know if it is due to the author beng able to forgive or being able to emotionally remove himself to a third party stance; either way I'm impressed. 5 stars for bravery.
Book Review: same intensity, but no levity
Summary: 4 Stars
augusten burroughs is a brilliant writer, not in that he does what others cannot, but that he does so well what others wish they could do. in this book, augusten takes us to the relationship with his father. we've been brought into his world with his mother, her psychiatrist, his brother, his partnerships, and his alcohol, but this is the first that his father has really come to light. i didn't understand how he could manage to live with the psychiatrist and all the insanity in that home, but after reading about the dynamic with his father, the psychiatrist was understandably the lesser of the two evils.
i only wish he hadn't chose to narrate the book himself. the 2nd half was filled with much more inflection than the 1st half.