A Wolf at the Table
Augusten Burroughs
St Martin’s Press
***
Author Augusten Burroughs, whose first novel Running with Scissors was made into a Hollywood film starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Annette Bening, returns to family memoir with A Wolf at the Table. In a decidedly darker childhood tale, Burroughs turns his powers of observation on his father, who was a mere bit player in the debut. While Running with Scissors laced a brutal childhood with humour, readers are unlikely to crack even a smile let alone laugh at the boy Augusten living in fear of his alcoholic, potentially homicidal father in A Wolf a the Table. Previous memoirs and short stories (Running with Scissors, Dry, Magical Thinking and Possible Side Effects) solidified Burroughs’ place as one of today’s funniest authors, but only Dry, his tale of alcoholism, rehab, relapse and recovery, hinted that Burroughs was capable of telling a tale without needing a laugh. While humour will undoubtedly resurface as one of the strongest weapons in his writing arsenal in future work, A Wolf at the Table is a welcome departure from the author’s safehaven and proves Burroughs’ writing is more than a humourous façade.
