A Wolf at the Table

This book is a memoir of the authors father.

The first thing that popped in my mind when I finished this novel was thinking it would different. Most of the book was about his dis-functional childhood and how he and his mother would escape his fathers tormenting actions (or at times, no action just ignoring his family).

I thought the book would focus mainly on how his father became to be the way he was as an adult and maybe some insight behind his actions. One chapter in the beginning touched on a little of his father's childhood and a few at the end spoke about his father in his elder years, but the rest was about the brave child who had unstable parents and hope that someday things would change.

I did like the book even though it was dark and hard to imagine a child going through the disturbing type of situations. I'd recommend reading this book before Running with Scissors so you have background information before reading the other book since I feel its a pre-qual. Wolf at the Table talks about the authors adolescent years and Running with Scissors focuses on his teenage years.

The author states that a Wolf at the Table, Running with Scissors and Dry (his novel about his years after high school) are all memoirs, but you never know if they are true tales of someones life after the James Frey debacle with Million Little Pieces (remember the whole Oprah deal where she was crushed after she learned most of the detail in the book was exaggerated), but you never know for sure.