I finished Augusten Burroughs' breakthrough memoir Running with Scissors a few months ago, and I must say that I totally loved every page of it. It was a wild rollercoaster ride from start to finish. I picked up Possible Side Effects, expecting the same thrill and excitement I felt when I read Running with Scissors. Unfortunately, this memoir did not give me the same entertainment and shock value that made me appreciate Burroughs in the first place.

Possible Side Effects is a collection of short stories ranging from his quirky childhood to his messy adulthood. What turned me away from this book is the lack of organization and connection in his stories. It became somewhat difficult for the readers to indicate which part of his life is being described because of the fact that his stories are all over the place. He would tell a story from his quirky childhood about his crazy poet of a mother and then suddenly follow it up with a story about the time when he was an alcoholic. It seems like he used this method to show some sort of correlation between his unconventional upbringing and the issues in his adult life. However, it only ended up being confusing and flat because of the lack of that "wow" factor from the readers. Some stories just ended up being disappointing because there seemed to be no point in writing and publishing them in the first place.

It is pretty evident that I was a little disappointed when I finished this book. I delved into it with such high expectations because of the high bar Running with Scissors set. I know it is a little unfair for me to compare the two books as they are different in content and style, but it is quite unavoidable when some parts of the book were parallel with each other. It seemed like he recycled some stories from his previous memoirs and stuck them together in this book.

It's so good. Another collection of stories from Burrough's life. It's not one of those things where he has just had a more interesting life than the rest of us (but let's face it-he has); mostly he just sees the humor in life and is able to tell us about it in a way that has you rolling on the floor. And believe me-I was.

He is just so honest. How can you not just drink it in? Being able to laugh at yourself and be vulnerable at the same time . . . it's a thing of beauty.

One of my favorite stories in the book talks about a vacation he took with his husband, Dennis. I have heard him describe how much he loves Dennis many times before and it always touches me to my core. It is the kind of love I want:

"I watch him pee sometimes and I actually sigh with joy because I won him,
somehow. Happily, GLEEFULLY, would I live in dire poverty with him, if it meant
we got to live to each be one hundred years old. The next morning, a tree could
fall on top of our cardboard box and crush us both to death at the same instant.
Bliss"

There is another story that I LOVED because it reminded me of my best friend, Tim. He talks about his hands and how they are just bloody, dry, cracked and hideous. You got to respect a person willing to share that mess.

I'm telling you-don't miss this book. Or any of his books for that matter.

sometimes when i'm reading a bunch of books about north korea and murdered women in mexico and super-creepy mysteries, it is wonderful to lighten up the mood a bit with augusten. i don't know if he is very much like me, or just very honest and very much like everyone in the world in a way we're all too scared to admit. always appreciate his dark humor and self-deprecating stories.

This is the 3rd book I've read by Augusten Burroughs and he just gets better and better. I love his writing because, while his voice is distinctive and his autobiographical writing clearly links his books to one another, each one really stands out as its own story. This collection of essays about his childhood is beautifully written, honest, funny, and poignant. I will look for more of his work.

A mish-mash of short memoirs - no chronological order, almost like random thoughts put to paper, some laughable, some VERY vulgar and raunchy (so I knocked off a star).

I am turning my reading into a “family affair”, reading books by both Augusten and his brother John and one written by their mother. They are way beyond dysfunctional, but I’m enjoying their life stories from 3 different angles. Serious mental problems affect the entire clan, but it makes for interesting reading!!

In a couple of the stories his mother refers to Chris (his real name) as Augusten when he was still a child - I read he was 18 when he changed his name??

You want to know why I love Augusten Burroughs so? Because he writes sentences like this:

“And with these words – I don’t think you’re supposed to be aware of your own heartbeat – this unknown woman in a burnt orange poncho doomed me to a life of pathological overawareness of my own cardiac activity.”

That right there is just fucking brilliant writing.

The chapter entitled "The Wisdom Tooth" where they stay at an inn owned by a doll collector is classic. That essay should be studied in colleges everywhere.

Great writing. Kept me intrigued the whole book! Weirdly reminiscent of the sad girl novels I love to read, but maybe true? Is this non fiction? Embellished non fiction??

This is the follow up to Burroughs’s hit "Running With Scissors", which I have not read yet. I probably should have and recommend that you do although it's not imperative. All in all I liked it because of his quirky, neurotic dysfunctional world view, but I didn't love it. He's a memoirist, he's got serious issues and a swift whit with which he can relate them to you. He's just odd enough and painfully tortured by everyday existence for me to want to keep reading. Judging from what I got to know of him, he's probably just quirky enough to hunt down reviews of his own books on Goodreads while surfing the net at 2am in some hotel room while chomping on his 50th piece of niccorett gum.

Such a fascinating read! The book itself is extremely entertaining with comical and heartbreaking short stories that kept me up all night.

I am about halfway through this collection of autobiographical essays, and I love it every bit as much as I loved "Magical Thinking." Burroughs presents himself as this detached, selfish, self-absorbed man, but the stories he shares reveal him to be a tenderhearted person who is acutely aware of his foibles.
I love reading about his relationship with Dennis. I love that he marvels that someone as wonderful as Dennis could love him so much. Their unabashed adoration of their dogs hits home with me.
Burroughs is unpretentious, honest, insightful and a deft manipulator of the English language. What more could a reader want?

One of the funniest books I have ever read. The chapter on Augusten applying for a job at the restaurant and filling out the application almost made me pee my pants. I have never laughed so hard at a book. I also enjoyed the pornographic drive bys of anyone who cut him and his friend off.

Absolutely hilarious.

This book happened to be around and I saw that it was the author of Running With Scissors (a book I was interested in, admittedly after I saw trailers for the film years ago, which I also never saw), so I read it. I was really interested at first, but I found the book to be a bit... lacking. In what I am not entirely sure, but by the time I realized that I did not like it I was halfway through the book and found myself somewhat committed. Also it was easy to read and interesting, even if I was disturbed by some of the things the author did (both with the text and within the text). This book, though I dislike it, did not leave me feeling like I had wasted my time as other books I have not enjoyed have. I also wonder if I would have been less critical of this book if I had not been begun reading The Catcher in the Rye at the same time, though no because the books have that much in common, but I suppose something of Burroughs voice at times was reminiscent of Holden's at times, at least to me at the time.