In all, Augusten Burroughs obstacles have come across his path, but luckily he made a career out of them. In my opinion, his most noteworthy novels are Running with Scissors and Magical Thinking. Running with Scissors was the first novel of Burroughs's that I read, and I was left speechless. Again I'll refer to the effortless satire that appears in the novel, while most would write a sympathy novel about childhood abuse and molestation, Burroughs creates a dark, twisted novel poking fun at his trials. I also favor Magical Thinking, because rather than focusing on his childhood like Running with Scissors, it primarily focuses on his adult life. Burroughs writes of his new love Dennis, in this novel, and their life together, creating somewhat of an end to the series. While I find Burroughs novels comical and an easy read, they also disturb me and I hope he doesn't have anymore horror stories to turn into stand up comedy. I cannot only describe Burroughs writing style as satirical or comical, but also sassy. An excellent example of Burroughs sassiness is when Dennis and Augusten were standing in line at a local fair and the reader gets to hear Augusten's thoughts about the couple in front of him: "His wife's hair had made unfortunate contact with a large amount of hydrogen peroxide, and the result was blinding in the noon sun" (Burroughs 164). The fact that Burroughs is gay only adds a little spice to his writing, giving Burroughs what I believe to be an edge over other autobiographers.
Works Cited:
Burroughs, Augusten. Magical Thinking: True Stories. New York: St. Martin's, 2004. Print.
Burroughs, Augusten. Running with Scissors: a Memoir. New York: St. Martin's, 2002. Print.
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