Magical Thinking: True Stories

Magical Thinking: True Stories

2004 • 281 pages

Ratings13

Average rating4.2

15

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.

April 19, 2014Report this review