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Title: Don't Be Fooled By His Brilliant Storytelling
Review: Although Augusten Burroughs is a brilliant storyteller, I just couldn't get past the first third of the book. It was too toxic, and I'm not talking about the toxicity of the subject matter. The toxicity: The author is exploiting his own story - the story of his horrendous childhood of abuse - for twisted and immature motives. He writes with a lack of perspective and a lack of a healing message, and for me that makes his story non-redemptive. It's like junk food - the value is in the flavor and the crunch, not in the nutrition. Not surprising that he was successful in advertising.Part of why I didn't finish it, however, is that I already read the whole of his brilliant but ultimately vapid semi-sequel, "Dry," and I wasn't about to get fully fooled a second time. I hoped this book would be different. It wasn't.
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