A searing, emotional portrait of a son who wants nothing more than the love his father will not grant him, Burroughs's latest memoir (after 2004's Dry
) is indeed powerful. Absent is the wry humor of Running with Scissors
and the absurd poignancy of Burroughs's years living with his mother's Svengali-like psychiatrist. Instead, Burroughs focuses on the years he lived both in awe and fear of his philosophy professor father in Amherst, Mass. Despite frequent trips with his mother to escape his father's alcoholic rages, Burroughs was determined to win his father's affection, secretly touching the man's wallet and cigarettes and even going so far as to make a surrogate dad with pillows and discarded clothing. Only after his father's neglect—or cruelty—leads to the death of Burroughs's beloved guinea pig during one of the family's many separations does the son turn against the father. Avoiding self-pity, Burroughs paints his father with unwavering honesty, forcing the reader to confront, as he did, a man who even on his deathbed, refused his son a hint of affection. His father missed so much, Burroughs muses, not knowing his son. Luckily, Burroughs does not deny the reader such an enormous pleasure. (Apr.)
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Reviewed on: 03/24/2008
Release date: 04/01/2008
Genre: Nonfiction
Paperback - 272 pages - 9780312428273
Open Ebook - 256 pages - 9781429937658
Hardcover - 242 pages - 9780312342029
Compact Disc - 8 pages - 9781427204257
Paperback - 242 pages - 9780753516836
Open Ebook - 256 pages - 9780753520376
Hardcover - 242 pages - 9781905264353