Never Belive A Memoir

Unless its by Augusten Burroughs (well, that's according to him). My friend, Charlyn and I went to see his book signing & reading the other night. Augusten mentioned to never believe a memoir fully while he was answering a question, then he said unless its mine. After he made that comment he said, oh now that's going to be the headline in tomorrow's newspaper. Everyone laughed and I leaned over to my friend, well it'll be the headline on my blog.

The whole event was so carefree, inspiring to those who want to tell their stories, honest and funny. The tour was to promote his new book, A Wolf at the Table. During the talk, Augusten spoke about his relationship with his parents, but mostly about his father. He had explained that he wasn't even planning on writing about his father and just keeping a few chapters about him in Running With Scissors. After his father died & he had inherited his diaries and paperwork, it was then decided he would write about him. He explained that this memoir was hard to write since he had to remove his humorous defence mechanism to write such a truthful novel about his experiences with his father.

I wish I had asked the question, but Augusten never mentioned how his father came to be such a neglectful, mentally abusive father. Maybe Augusten will never find out, but maybe a glimpse into his fathers past (more then he spoke about) could help figure out why. I know there is no excuse for his father (or anyone) being such a "devil" of a parent, but at least there could be some revelation as to why.

The one thing that really stuck with me from the entire experience was his answer to a question regarding how he dealt with all the issues in his past. His stated that bad things happen to people and you cannot truly heal from that experience. Heal is a TV term to make things all warm and fuzzy. A person will have a hole inside of them that can become very large, but eventually it stops growing and it becomes enclosed with bravery. That hole is still there, but you are able to move on. He says he is like a piece of swiss cheese, but he can still love, shop and and continue to live.

Augusten mentioned he is working on another book, another memoir. I'm assuming the timeline for this memoir will be after his novel Dry, but he really didn't say. So, we'll have to see! Also his brother wrote a memoir regarding his life with asperger's syndrome. That book is "Look Me In The Eye' by John Elder.

If you ever get the chance to see Augusten speak, I would recommend that you do. After his talk, reading and answer & question session, we were able to have our book signed by him. As I handed him my book and I told him what a wonderful thing he did that night, he never stopped looking into my eyes. He made a connection with me (just like he did everyone else) and it made me feel like he honestly appreciated that each and every one of use came out to hear him speak. He never looked away even as he signed my book. Amazing!