Magical Thinking: True Stories

by Augusten Burroughs

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312315953
• ISBN13: 9780312315955
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Picador USA
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

The Real man himself

His essays read more to me like rants or ramblings. But his thinking is so perverse, so "magical" if you will, you cant put the book down.

Great introduction to Burroughs...

This is a great read - hilarious, candid, captivating, and a great window into the mind of an incredibly talented, but clearly disturbed, man. This is the only Burroughs book I've read so far but I'm looking forward to picking up his other work. Anyway, he's a brilliant writer and I would highly recommend you pick this up...

Absolutely great

Althought not quite as engaging as his typical hysterical autobiographical stuff, it is nonetheless engaging and funny. Broken up into several short stories, I found myself really getting into (almost) all of the stories just to have them end by the next page. Regardless, if you are, or are finding yourself becoming, a fan of this guy, do yourself a favor and read it.

Magically fascinating, despite the fact that he's happy in the countryside

Having adored the off-beat, self-destructive, endangered life Burroughs wrote about in Running with Scissors and Dry, I was eager to pick up his third memoir. While his path of destruction made for scintillating and darkly comic reading in his first two books, here he writes from a balanced and centered place. He lives in the countryside of Massachusetts with a long-time partner. This is the place in his life were he was finally able to reflect on his earlier experiences and write his first two masterpieces. Some reviewers seem to think the edge is gone, but I couldn't disagree more. Burroughs is able to make even the mundane fascinating--dealing with a rat in his bathtub, having a neurotic dog who has only ever urinated on NY concrete and can't handle the wide open grassiness of the new home in Massachusetts, dealing with a psychotic cleaning lady, talking to telemarketers, and trying to get his boyfriend to switch moisturizers. Burroughs inhabits a fabulous Magical Thinking world (in which the person believes he exerts more influence over events than he actually has), and he sucks the reader right into the rich and larger-than-life world. Now that he's stable, I'd love to read more of Burroughs commenting on the ordinary, making it magical.

quintessential Augusten

As with Running with Scissors and Dry,Burroughs does it right with Magical Thinking. These are wonderful stories from his life experiences. Each fairly short chapter is a new insight into a piece of his life. Funny and touching!

Favorite Author

I will buy anything and everything written by this author. He is absolutely brilliant, and when I read his work I am obsessed with every last word on the page. It's especially enjoyable when he writes autobiographical accounts. He can take an experience like finding a mouse in the bath tub, for example, and make it captivating and charming. I like his style of writing, the way his voice comes through so clearly, the way he writes in incomplete sentences in all the right places and makes it work. There are also a few wonderful love stories about he and Dennis, like the story that begins with Augusten going to Kmart for the iron. The story isn't really about a specific event; it's about his love for Dennis. Augusten has the ability to SHOW his feelings rather than to just SAY how he feels. It is certainly the most touching tribute to a partner that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Although I don't as much enjoy the feel of holding a hardcover book, I couldn't wait until Magical Thinking came out in paperback--I had to get it immediately. And I suggest you do the same. (Note: 'Augusten, please hurry up and publish your next book; I need my fix.)