Augusten Burroughs’ XXXmas Spectacular

BOOK REVIEW | Whether you celebrate Christmas with your family in some god-awful suburb or spend it holed up in your tiny Harlem apartment trying desperately not to catch a glimpse of “A Christmas Story” (believe me, I know) the holidays are unavoidable. We all probably have one or two Christmas tales fraught with humor and tragedy. Just last year I watched my mother fall into the Christmas tree after downing several bottles of champagne with my friends and me. The next morning, she couldn’t join my father in taking me to the airport. She was busy throwing up. Never one to avoid basking in his own family dysfunction, Augusten Burroughs has released his own collection of homo-biographical Christmas themed stories, “You Better Not Cry,” just in time for the forced December gift exchange.

While his last book, “Wolf at the Table,” painted dark images of life with an abusive father, “You Better Not Cry” is a return to the funnier, more self-deprecating Burroughs of “Running with Scissors.” Without giving too much away, in his new book Santa’s face is eaten away, a dream home is almost ruined and a toxic gingerbread tenement is built. There are also appearances by some Burroughs’ favorite characters. Grandmother Carolyn and his HIV positive former lover, Pighead. They are two of the few people whom Buroughs’ always writes positively about and who seem to not only provide him with the few moments of stability in his otherwise chaotic past, but who are also quick with the classic on-liners that make his books memorable. (For a reminder, read his short story “Georgia Thumper.”)

This new book, however, raises an important question. If “Wolf at the Table” was critically less successful than Burroughs’ preceding collections, is the author running out of material? Despite my shedding tears and bursting into laughter (while on the subway no less), and although the book is as satisfying as any other memoir we’ve featured this year, still, “Better Not Cry” doesn’t stand on par next to many of his other works. Reading “Better Not Cry” was almost like watching the last season of a favorite TV show. The wacky characters and whimsical jokes are still present, but you just can’t be sure if you’re enjoying what you’re reading because you feel an obligation to or because the work is truly entertaining.

Please don’t get me wrong. This is not a bad book by any stretch. It is the perfect last minute gift for your more irony craving friends. But having covered and rehashed the many stories and places of his life, from childhood to the present, the time may have come for Burroughs to explore more deeply the world of fiction. His first book, and only novel, “Sellevision” was excellent–the perfect combination of sardonic wit and trashy humor. What’s not to love about exposing the potentially seedy underworld of home shopping channels? As rumors of a possible series for Showtime grow, there is no question that Burroughs is a brilliant, well-observed writer — all the more reason for him to grace us with the innovation that is surely percolating in that twisted mind of his.

 Related posts:

1. Augusten Burroughs for Towleroad TV Augusten Burroughs on “A Wolf At The Table” about his relationship with his abusive father. ...
2. Who has the sexier author photo? Augusten Burroughs (A Wolf at The Table) vs David Sedaris (When You Are Engulfed in Flames). They’re both memoirists and essayists, they both have new...
3. Book News; Hugh Hefner may (or may not)
   have let a dude go down on him In a new tell all published by Wiley, of all places, author Stephen Watts recounts two previously unpublished stories of Hugh Hefner’s already overexposed sex...
4. Top Records of 2008 n7 | Oracular Spectacular 7. MGMT | Oracular Spectacular. There’s really nothing more to say. We wrote about them way before they became famous. myspace.com/mgmt ...
5. Dennis Cooper reads ‘Ugly Man’ The great thing about Ugly Man is that the stories are brief. The entire book can be consumed in one sitting in one evening....