I just read and very much enjoyed the titular book. For those who haven’t read it, it’s disturbing but hilarious and allegedly autobiographical. (One reviewer commented that it’s as “if David Sedaris had written Hotel New Hampshire” and that’s a dead-on comparison.)
For those who have read this or other books by Burroughs (the memoir Dry and the novel Sellevision
[ul]
[li]Do you happen to know the name of Burroughs’ mother? (I know that Augusten Burroughs is either a pseudonym or a name-change, but I’d like to see if I can ILL a book of her poetry)[/li][li]Did you find yourself at once repulsed by Bookman but also pitying him? (I did and it disturbed me- I think NAMBLA is the best argument for chemical castration, but the “affair” [or to be more precise “long term ongoing statuatory rape”] between Augusten and Bookman I saw more as a bond between two desperately needy people, which isn’t to imply in any way that Bookman shouldn’t have had the shite kicked out him)[/li][list]
[li]Does DRY give any more afterward to the Finch family than in the epilogue of RWS? (I’m curious if Augusten and Natalie remained friends; I know that at least some members of the real-life Finch family despise him.)[/li][li]Who would you cast in the movie?[/li][/ul]
Augusten- I’d go with an unknown actor but it would need to be one like Frankie Muniz or a 19 year old DiCaprio in that they’re of age but could convincly play an adolescent (due to the graphic nature of the sex and drug scenes)
Natalie- Marisa Jaret Winokur
Hope- Maura Tierney
Dr. Finch- Robert Deniro
Agnes- Lily Tomlin
Joranne (the OCD & agoraphobic patient who lives upstairs)- Jean Stapleton
Augusten’s mother- Courtney Love
Bookman- Skeet Ulrich
Dry doesn’t elaborate any more on the fates of the Finches. There are only a few points in it where he mentions events or people from Running with Scissors, and Natalie is never mentioned at all.
BTW, in case anybody is interested (or even if they’re not), the real Dr. Finch was Rodolf Harvey Turcotte (check out the Santa photos for added eeriness). Augusten Burroughs’ name when he lived with the Finch-Turcottes was Christopher Robison.
I resurrect this lifeless thread because the movie casting has been announced. Brian Cox and Annette Benning are both inspired choices, though Jill Clayburgh and Vanessa Redgrave must be little more than cameos.
I never responded to this thread to say thanks for the nutty mom link. I enjoyed it with horror and disgust when you first posted it. How did you find it?
I’m so glad I found this thread. I’m a big fan of all of Burroughs’ books. (You left out Magical Thinking in the OP.)
I hope the movie captures the same spirit of the book; Hollywood has the tendency to glurge-ify or slapstick-ify stuff, and I really hope this doesn’t happen.
The info on Burroughs and Finch’s real name was in his biography on the Contemporary Authors database.
Magical Thinking hadn’t been written when I started the thread but I’ve read it since. I really enjoyed parts of it (particularly the insane domineering housekeeper) but I thought he was trying just a bit too hard to capture David Sedaris’s audience (which really isn’t his style).
I second that. I loved Slackjaw and Quitting the Nairobi Trio but I keep passing by his novel at the bookstore. It seems to jump out at me all the time, but I didn’t want to get it because I read his first books during a grim time in my life and I haven’t been in the mood to go back there. It’s funny, one day a few years ago I was looking for something else and I found a bunch of Jim Knipfel’s essays online and I got hooked on them. Here’s a link to some essays. Then Slackjaw came out and I was so excited.
I think along the same lines I can recommend Cintra Wilson.
I picked up Chlidren Playing Before a Statue of Hercules because I like the idea of David Sedaris telling me what to read. I’ve read a few of the stories before and I really like Patricia Highsmith so it’s nice how everything all works out. If you like one thing the odds are you like another thing and everything comes full circle.
About Magical Thinking, the thing I most enjoyed about it was the title essay. I’m a big fan of actual magical thinking, so I sympathize with the whole burden of having to control outcomes with obsessive compulsive mind power. I’ve only listened to his audiobooks, I haven’t read any of them. I think you get a different interpretation when you listen to an author read. It’s strange to me when people say they laughed hard at Augusten stories. I think I might make the odd snorting sound but I don’t really laugh. I’m amused inside, but not in the haw haw way. Even the story of the housekeeper…it’s funny, for sure, and I’m not saying I didn’t feel some delight, but mostly it’s the kind of weird delight like you feel when you wiggle a loose tooth? It’s hard to explain. David Sedaris really makes me laugh and he makes the world a nicer place. Augusten is so much darker. Augusten is so “hey remember when you were 13 and you got raped in the throat? Ha ha ha, it’s funny because it’s true!” He really brings out your bitter worldliness if you have any.
[QUOTE=Sampiro]
[li]Does DRY give any more afterward to the Finch family than in the epilogue of RWS? (I’m curious if Augusten and Natalie remained friends; I know that at least some members of the real-life Finch family despise him.)[/list][/li][/QUOTE]
“Dry” is an account of the author’s progress in getting sober. It doesn’t deal with any of his family.
While I loved the book myself, it’s worth mentioning that some friends of mine were particularly disturbed by his frankness. They got angry that Burroughs spoke very candidly about A.A. meetings. At one point, he recounts hearing another persons’ share at a meeting. (A “share” is when someone speaks about their own drinking misadventures). Even though he doesn’t give out the person’s name, it is the big no-no in A.A. to reveal what someone else spoke about at a meeting to folks outside the meeting. (If Burroughs wants to write about his own experiences, that’s fine. But what anyone else shares in an A.A. meeting is considered private info, and isn’t supposed to be talked about outside the meeting itself.)
P.S.: While it’s possible that he made that bit up, the details about the meeting space on Perry Street are accurate, which leads my friends & I to suspect that the womans’ share might be realistic as well.