Augusten Burroughs Week: Day Four - Sellevision, A Novel Book Review

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 Augusten Burroughs Week: Day Four - Sellevision, A Novel Book Review

About the Book: Darkly funny and gleefully mean-spirited,Sellevision explores greed, obsession and third tier celebrity, in the world of a fictional home shopping network.

Welcome to the troubled world of Sellevision, America’s premier retail broadcasting network. When Max Andrews, the much-loved and handsome (lonely and gay) host of “Slumber Sunday Sundown” accidentally exposes himself in front of twenty million kids and their parents during a “Toys for Tots” segment, Sellevision faces its first big scandal. As Max fails to find a job in television, another host, the popular and perky Peggy Jean Smythe is receiving sinister emails about her appearance from a stalker. Popping pills and drinking heavily, she fails to notice that her husband is spending a lot of time with the very young babysitter who lives next door. Then there’s Leigh, whose affair with Sellevision boss Howard Toast is going nowhere, until she exposes him on air; and Bebe, Sellevision’s star host, who finds Mr. Right through the Internet--if she can just stop her shopping addiction from taking over.

Our Take: We felt that it was important to take the time to honor Augusten with an entire week here at Book Legion, so we're posting one of his titles each day this week!  This time we're looking at his first novel, Sellevision.

Augusten had really hit a slump with his previous book 'Possible Side Effects', and so he delved into straight fiction writing.  I have to say that I was VERY pleased with this effort.  At this point his wit and dark humor really shines as he creates these flawed, but endearing, characters and the twisted life situations that tie them together.  The book is centered around a broadcast network, 'Sellevision'.  Peggy, a good Christian mother, has a serious stalker, while Max was just fired for exposing himself on a kids segment on tv.   This book is light-hearted, while still managing to be dark and twisty.  Its classic Augusten and its an amazing read.

We highly recommend this novel to everyone!  Tomorrow we're going to examine the final book in our review week.....A Wolf at the Table!

How to Buy: Amazon.com or the MacMillan Website

Augusten Burroughs Week: Day Three - Possible Side Effects Book Review

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 Augusten Burroughs Week: Day Three - Possible Side Effects Book Review

About the Book: From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Running with Scissors comes Augusten Burroughs's most provocative collection of true stories yet. From nicotine gum addiction to lesbian personal ads to incontinent dogs, Possible Side Effects mines Burroughs's life in a series of uproariously funny essays. These are stories that are uniquely Augusten, with all the over-the-top hilarity of Running with Scissors, the erudition of Dry, and the breadth of Magical Thinking. A collection that is universal in its appeal and unabashedly intimate, Possible Side Effects continues to explore that which is most personal, mirthful, disturbing, and cherished, with unmatched audacity. A cautionary tale in essay form. Be forewarned--hilarious, troubling, and shocking results might occur.

Our Take:  Augusten has been spewing out his memoirs for many years now in a few books, so its only natural that he's staring to sputter out a bit.  Even Burroughs only has so much to say about his childhood and life.  Possible Side Effects is a collection of essays that are admittedly false in many ways.   We felt that it was important to take the time to honor Augusten with an entire week here at Book Legion, so we're posting one of his titles each day this week!

There is a saying in life...there are three parts to a story yours, theirs and the truth.   Burroughts admits readily in this book that many parts are expanded or revised due to his extraordinary imagination.  This is the least developed of Augusten's books, its very clear that he hit a crossroads at this point and his method of writing was starting to become a bit forced.  Its still very entertaining, but its certainly not up to the caliber of Running with Scissors or Dry.   After this he took a break to write straight fiction with Sellevision.  I think that was a good idea, because when he came back with a Wolf at the Table (which we'll review on Friday) and You'd Better Not Cry (which we reviewed in January), the magic was back!

Tomorrow we're going to examine 'Sellevision', a novel by Burroughs!

How to Buy: Amazon.com or the MacMillan Website

Augusten Burroughs Week: Day Two - Magical Thinking: True Stories Book Review

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Augusten Burroughs Week: Day Two - Magical Thinking: True Stories Book Review

About the Book: From the #1 bestselling author of Running with Scissors and Dry--a contagiously funny, heartwarming, shocking, twisted, and absolutely magical collection. True stories that give voice to the thoughts we all have but dare not mention. It begins with a Tang Instant Breakfast Drink television commercial when Augusten was seven. Then there is the contest of wills with the deranged cleaning lady. The execution of a rodent carried out with military precision and utter horror. Telemarketing revenge. Dating an undertaker and much more. A collection of true stories that are universal in their appeal yet unabashedly intimate and very funny.

Our Take: Augusten Burroughs is without a doubt one of the most interesting non-fiction writers of our time.  He has taken his scarring childhood and turned it into an amazing series of memoirs and anecdotes that not only make you laugh out loud, but I feel may provide some healing for others that have lived through abusive and disfunctional situations in their own childhoods.  We felt that it was important to take the time to honor Augusten with an entire week here at Book Legion, so we're posting one of his titles each day this week!

I almost like Magical Thinking more than Burroughs' previous titles.  The reason being that its not a straight memoir, but rather a collection of anecdotes from various points in his life.  Magical Thinking is a psychological term that bascially means that the subject believes that they have more control over events than they actually do.  Burroughs has spent his fair share of time in the big couch, so its not surprising that he'd pick an industry term for his book.  He delves into everything from dog ownership to childhood memories of acting in commercials.  His bizarre experieces and undeniable charm and wit make Magical Thinking an absolute joy.

Augusten is a slam dunk.  He's never let us down yet with his many books and this one is no exception.  Tune in tomorrow when we take a look at 'Possible Side Effects'.  In the meantime, you need to add this one to your library!

How to Buy: Amazon.com or the MacMillan Website

You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas Book Review

You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas Book Review

Book Synopsis: You’ve eaten too much candy at Christmas…but have you ever eaten the face off a six-footstuffed Santa? You’ve seen gingerbread houses…but have you ever made your own gingerbread tenement? You’ve woken up with a hangover…but have you ever woken up next to Kris Kringle himself? Augusten Burroughs has, and in this caustically funny, nostalgic, poignant, and moving collection he recounts Christmases past and present—as only he could. With gimleteyed wit and illuminated prose, Augusten shows how the holidays bring out the worst in us and sometimes, just sometimes, the very, very best.

Our Take: Look, we love Augusten Burroughs here in the Book Legion offices.  He's provided us with absolute gems like 'Running With Scissors' (also a fantastic film adaptation) and 'A Wolf At the Table'.    This time he goes a little off his normal track with You Better Not Cry.  This 224 page collection of vignettes chronicles some of Burroughs' best twisted holiday memories. 

The writing isn't as consistantly strong throughout this title as it is in previous works, but the tales are fantastically entertaining and enlightening.  The specific memories and tales are great, but when Augusten gets into his ideas about the essence of the season he really hits a spark.  He recounts one holiday spent with a lover dying of AIDS and another with flooded pipes.  If you think your life sucks, and moreso your holidays, then you need to read this book.  This, like all of Burroughs' works, give us great perspective into our own problems as we see someone that has bad luck and the weight of the world on him to an extreme. 

I highly recommend this title.  It was very enjoyable and a great read.  Definately for mature audiences.

You can purchase this title on Amazon.com or the official St. Martin's website

Read an Exerpt from the Book: It’s not that I was an outright nitwit of a child. It’s that the things even a nitwit could do with little or no instruction often confused me. Simple, everyday sorts of things tripped me up. Stacking metal chairs, for example. Everybody in class just seemed to know exactly how to fold the seat up into the back and then nest them all together like Prin­gles potato chips. I sat on the floor for ten minutes with one of the things as if somebody had told me to just stare at it. Concentrate hard, Augusten, try and turn it into an eggplant with your mind. You can do it! The other children appeared to be born with some sort of innate knowledge, as though the action of fold­ing and stacking child-size metal school chairs was gene tically encoded within each of them, like fi nger­nails or a sigmoid colon.

I seemed to lack the ability to comprehend the obvi­ous. From the very beginning there had been warning signs.

Like every kid just starting school, I had to memo­rize the Pledge of Allegiance—something that would in many towns today be considered prayer and therefore forbidden; akin to forcing a child to drink the blood of a sacrificial goat or unfurl a Tabriz prayer rug and kneel barefoot on it while facing Mecca.

While I managed to learn the words, memorizing isn’t the same as understanding. And of course I was never tested on the meaning of the pledge. It must have sim­ply been taken for granted that even the dimmest child would easily grasp the meaning of a phrase such as I pledge allegiance, especially when that phrase was spoken while standing at strict attention and facing the Ameri­can flag, hand in a salute above the heart. There was so little room for misinterpretation. It was the Pledge of Allegiance, not Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.

Still. If one of the teachers had asked me to explain the meaning of those words—which I chanted parrot- minded and smiling each morning—they certainly would have been shocked to hear me admit that while I didn’t know exactly what it was about, I knew it had something to do with Pledge, the same furniture polish my mother used and that always, inexplicably, made me feel sunny. So each morning as I spoke those hallowed words, it was the bright yellow can with the glowing lem­ony scent that I pictured.
 
.....like what you read?  Go ahead and pick up the book!