Running with Scissors ... Burroughs

My notes for this book say "What is there to not love? Child abuse, neglect, and rape; drug and alcohol abuse; parental irresponsibility..."

When Burrough's parents divorce early in the book, Augusten lives first with his mother then with his mother's crazed psychologist in his anything-goes home. There he experiences first hand the delights of living with id-driven people pretending to be enlightened. This book was disturbing. All humor fled long before the main character started getting sexually abused by the psychiatrist's adopted son.

The book was initially labeled a memoir but a lawsuit from people who remember events differently settled that the book could not be marketed that way.

This is a good book for a book club; the discussion was rich and varied. One woman declared that life is too short and gave up after the first episode of child rape (not a bad choice). Another claimed it an entertaining piece of fiction. But the explanation I liked best was this:

Burroughs claimed that he wrote constantly as an adolescent. If true, that would have given him rich material to mine for a memoir. However, these writings would have been written from the perspective of a rather emotional teenager, with a teenager's unique perspective. Burroughs does do a good job of capturing an adolescent voice, but his veracity as a memoirist is questionable. Burrough's inclusion of dialogue 25 years after events clearly demonstrates his willingness to invent. While this is not unusual for a memoir, it is problematic.

About a boy...Hornby

Will, a rich, self-involved do-nothing Londoner meets Marcus, a 12-year old who needs to grow up as badly as Will does.

Nick Hornby brings them together with his usual dry delivery and insight. During the course of this book, Hornby skewers parental manipulation, provincialism, stereotypical males (irresponsible, emotionally stunted), stereotypical females (bitter divorcees, overly emotional), and anything else that gets in his way. The part on parental logic (about 4 pages) I actually read aloud to my 18-year old son (we were in a car, so he couldn't get away).

The debate at book club was:

1. Is there an equivalent of chick lit for men?
2. Would this be it?

If there is a genre of dude lit, I am not certain what it would be, but I am pretty certain this is not it. High fidelity or Fever pitch, maybe, but not About a boy. Rather, this book, plays into the female fantasy that emotionally unavailable men just need the right stimulus to become warm fuzzy types.

The other thing that stops this from being dude lit is that this is really a small story, about a small circle of people and their small lives. Nobody here is living on a large stage, scaling mountains, curing cancer, or tackling crocodiles.

I admit to having a great fondness for all Nick Hornby's books that I have read so far. This is a quick enjoyable book, full of insightful passages and humor.