Books A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father
Books and Publications Average Rating:

Rating: - Like Burroughs, Hate this book
I have all of Burroughs' books and was really looking forward to A Wolf at the Table. But this is not just disappointing, it's out right annoying. The narrative is cloying, self pitying, desperate, whiney and not trust worthy. I understand that Burroughs has had a insanely difficult life, but whereas his other books deal with his past in humor and a wry eye, this one is a humorless and over the top retelling.

It feels as if the author had incidents that haven't fit into his other books and in an effort to fill the autobiography, he has padded the pages with intricate details from his (and his father's) very early years. It doesn't seem right to question Burroughs' honesty, but I have a very hard time believing his vivid high chair memories.

In fairness, I haven't been able to finish it yet, but that's because I embarrassed myself while reading it on a plane this weekend. I made a loud guttural sound and sighed "you've got to be freaking kidding me" when reading "We were to have a new septic system. At first I was wary, afraid of the equipment. The bulldozer was like a giant poisonous yellow spider tearing apart the land to lay its eggs."

I think this entire book would have made a very compelling and concise New Yorker article, but as a book...it's just a pathetic read.

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Rating: - Another great read!
"A Wolf at the Table" is the fourth Augusten Burroughs book I've read and I was not disappointed. It is very well written, insightful and heartbreaking. He shares thoughts and feelings few would ever admit. Break out the Kleenex for the last chapter. I suspect most readers will come away with a deeper appreciation of their own fathers, I know I did.

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Rating: - Good book, questionable memoir
Burroughs is a very good writer. I'm convinced now. A Wolf at the Table is a very good book. However, like many other reviewers, I just don't think it is possible for an infant/toddler's brain to form long-term memories as Burroughs pushes on us in his book. Nor can I believe he can recall all of the minute details he writes of his life even when he is nine to twelve years old. This detail reads well, but is it all truly from memory or is it mostly embellished? Maybe I should give Burroughs a pass, but the history of the author's acknowldeged embellishment of his memoirs makes me doubt many of the larger dramas of this book. Gore Vidal, in his own memoir Palimpsest, gave a personal definition of a memoir: "a memoir is how one remembers one's own life, while an autobiography is history, requiring research, dates, facts double-checked." So, maybe he gets a pass.

Nevertheless, by the end of the book, I drank the Kool-Aid and it was largely due to the emotional--and thankfully, realistic--story at the book's end.

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Rating: - Not Up to Par
I am a huge Augustin Borroughs fan. I have read everything he has written and loved it. However I was very disappointed with A Wolf at the Table. So much so I only skimmed the last chapter because I just wanted to be done with it. It just was not of the same quality of all his other books. It is a very dark book, which I normally would have enjoyed, but at times it was just slow and boreing. I just didn't feel the emotion I normally feel when reading his stuff. Sorry.... but if you are going to read Borroughs I highly reccomend any of his other books.