Magical Thinking: True Stories
Ratings19
Average rating4
15
Ratings19
Average rating4
A collection of personal writings features observations on such topics as a contest of wills with a deranged cleaning lady, the emotional side of killing a rodent in one's home, and the brief fame that accompanies starring in a commercial.
Reviews with the most likes.
Magical thinking was one of my first forays into reading memoirs, and Augusten Burroughs did not disappoint. I laughed aloud countless times while reading this memoir, and never have I loved looking like a kooky book nerd more than while reading about Burrough's adventures in advertising.
Some random thoughts that convey what I thought:
“I realized my mistake at once. I must ease people into the facts of me, not deposit large, undigested chunks of my history at their feet. Too much of me too fast is toxic. Damn.”
But Augusten does not work on that and keeps making confessions in this memoir that would push away anyone who isn't morbidly curious...
The chapter Debby's requirements is something else: not only it is involving and interesting, but it got me to the point of reminding me of Roald Dahl!'s dark writings, and that's the highest compliment I can pay someone.
“I hadn't realized that modeling was such a parallel career to medicine. There were specialties!” - I laughed at that so hard!
The fact is that this kind of humor really does it for me. He has questionable morals, sure, but let's face it, had he pretended it was a work of fiction, no one would even talk about it. The writing is what I care about, and he does it in a way that makes us sympathetic instead of horrified - or maybe, amused instead of judgmental.
