This is the book that vaulted Augusten Burroughs into success. It is a memoir that looks at his life from the point of preadolescence forward. There is no question that his life was difficult and quirky. Most people would say that it is quite outside the norm.

The book starts when he was 11 years old and already dealing with his mother's period periods of mental illness. As she continues to head down the slope of emotional difficulties, he finds himself being adopted by her bizarre counselor and his family. Their home is by no means a healthier environment for him, but he does seem to come to call it home and cherishes the people he lives with. This includes a 33 year old patient of the doctor with whome he starts a sexual relationship.

Each chapter is a vignette that highlights various life experiences that happened to him from 11 - 17. The writing is plucky and interesting, having his usual sarcastic wit to highlight characters and events around him.

It is not surprising that he ended up falling into alcohol and drug abuse after having these experiences for his childhood, but it does speak to the strength of his own character that he was able to overcome all of this and now be a healthy adult. I can very much understand why this was such a popular book since ther writing is quite good. He is definitely frank about his experiences, sexual and otherwise, through this period. You may want to skip this one, though, if you shock easily.

This was turned into a movie that I have seen. The movie did a good job sticking to the contents of the book, though it was a bit selective as to what was included in the stories.