International ring
http://bookcrossing.com/journal/3454057
Please PM or email me with your postage preferences.
This book is in English
Does the narrator of a memoir need to be likeable? What if he's
particularly unsympathetic? What if the life he describes is so very
different from your own that you can only shake your head in
amazement?
Augusten Burroughs (a pseudonym) has written a memoir about his
horrific teenage years in western Massachusetts in the 1970's. After
an unpleasant divorce, his father breaks off all contact and his
unstable mother ends up signing him over to her psychiatrist,
patriarch of a crazy family living in an old wooden house.
What does Augusten wish for when his parents separate?
That "life would be fabric-softener, tuna-salad-on-white, PTA-
meeting normal." But what he gets is quite the opposite. Dr. Finch
looks just like Santa Claus and has a tatty waiting room and a
Masturbatorium where he relieves intimate needs that arise during
the course of the day. His 28-year-old daughter serves as
receptionist; another daughter is sold off at 13 to a 41-year-old
killer who beats her. His wife serves as the family doormat. The
adopted son, an ex-patient, age 33, starts an affair with Augusten,
age 13.
The voice is unsettling, and it catches your attention. From the
beginning, it expresses a very unusual sensibility. The nine-year
old male narrator watches how his mother dresses to go out for an
evening and admires her dress: "It is long, black and 100 percent
polyester, my favorite fabric because it flows. I will wear her
dress and shoes and I will be her." Augusten is already aware as a
young boy that he's gay. What drives him to know he's attracted only
to men seems strangely superficial--identifying with mom getting
dressed up, polishing his mood rings, playing with people's hair. He
grows up totally lacking moral responsibility, constantly shifting
the blame for his strange actions to his mother or father. You can
sense Augusten wishing for a figure to stop him in his decline, to
say "no" to some of his wilder ideas but none shows up.
The book's humor won't be to everyones taste, but I loved it.
Apparently it is now being made into a film
safrolistics
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Something is new at Yahoo! Groups. Check out the enhanced email design.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/SISQkA/gOaOAA/yQLSAA/wnIolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
Have you told a friend today? http://bookcrossing.com/tellafriend
Archives and email list settings:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BookCrossing
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BookCrossing/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
