At times laugh out loud funny, at times heart-wrenching, I enjoyed this collection of short stories from Burroughs. I hadn't read anything of his sense Running with Scissors first came out, and his writing style is easy to read and gives you a true sense of his pretty messed up childhood and adolescence. The reason I didn't rate it higher was because I felt the more serious stories were presented in the same light-hearted way as the funny stories, and I didn't feel like he pulled off that sort of flippant-yet-serious tone other humorist/memoirists can. Stories about his grandmother, and how awful she was to him, were hilarious but also had the potential to be much sadder--like when he realizes that part of the reason his mother is the way she is is because of how cold her mother, Augusten's grandmother, is; the way he talks about how his father never really wanted kids and never had anything much to do with raising him. I wish there was just slightly more time spent on the gravity of these realizations, because they obviously have a lot to do with problems he suffered as an adult. These were the "possible side effects" of growing up in such a dysfunctional family, yet they receive as much time as a description of an ex-boyfriend's tacky apartment.

Still, I enjoyed reading these short stories and would recommend them to someone who wants some light, humorous reading.

Augusten Burroughs is a funny guy. I like him more and more with each of his books that I read. I don't have a list of the stories and essays from this book in front of me as I already turned it back in to the library. But the stories that stand out in my mind as being especially entertaining, humorous, and/or touching include: the one where he and Dennis go to the creepy B&B in New England, Mrs. Chang, the story of his French bulldogs, the one with the dermatologist, kitty kitty, and the junior mints campaign. I have to say the Mrs. Chang story had me on the rofl- which was great except that I was driving (j/k- I wasn't on the floor, but man, I laughed so hard I cried). While I laughed heartily and often, there were some more serious stories, too. Burroughs comes some really strong insights about himself in Kitty Kitty and the dermatologist story (can't remember the official name of that one). My only criticism (and really the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars) is that some of the stories felt like they were not quite complete. However, that was just 2 or 3 of them, and I might just be being picky. But I wanted to know what happened to Saturday Susan and Penis Man (love these nicknames, btw), for instance. Even if he never knew what happened, I wish he had said so, as I felt like he moved on to the next thing too quickly without ever circling back. But still- a highly entertaining read.

Noteworthy quotes:

“Fact: upon locking yourself our of your apartment you will immediately need to use the bathroom. Fact: and then you will stand in place and watch your door. You will just stare. As though rebuffed by it. As though it has done this to you.”

“Just as I had long suspected, a person didn't really need math for anything anyway. Maybe some people did. Some limited people.”

“...I don't think it's any more deceptive than wearing four-inch come-fuck-me pumps when one has no intention of ever fucking anybody.”

"I was in complete awe of time's elasticity. Sometimes it compresses. Sometimes it stretches. And yet it always does one when you need the other."

"In return, I learned that there really and truly is a Santa Claus, and he is a shy Chinese man who has allergies."

Augusten Burroughs gives me a happy. While Running With Scissors contains MANY shocking/graphic/awful stories that are frosted with humor, Possible Side Effects provides all the giggle without the remorse of laughing at someone else’s expense. Burroughs’ essays are sheer comedic genius. Truly laugh out loud funny – so much so that I was CONSTANTLY inundated with “what’s so funny, Mom?????” from the small people who live with me. FYI – the appropriate answer to that question when reading Augusten Burroughs 99.9999% of the time is “NOTHING!”

YAWN
The first few stories bored me to tears. Boy loses tooth, NEXT! Man spends days in London hotel room watching BBC, stuffing his fat face and bashing Americans. Ok. Men acquire naughty puppy. zzz I don't need my books to be action-packed, but the pace of these essays is so slow that even the punctuation is starting to piss me off. Sentence fragments galore make for an even slower read. In the subsequent stories I have chuckled a few times, but I am irritated at Mr. Burrough's masturbatory method of writing. He is just SOOOOO important that people are going to want to buy his cruddy old underwear on e-Bay. Yeah. I don't doubt there are freaks out there who would want this kind of memorabilia, but our author seems to be a little too proud of it for me to like him. In fairness, perhaps if I had read "Running with Scissors" first, I would have fallen in love with him and then would be amused by these glimpses into the mind of the author. Stories further into the book pick up a little for me, but I'm not sure if it's because they were truly more entertaining and better written, or if it's because I felt nostalgic for the places Augusten described, since I went to college in Western Mass. I agree with another reviewer on the point that Augusten's attempts at sentimentality seemed phony and overdone, especially in the story about the badly burned dermatologist. Puh-leeze. Entertainment Weekly editors must have been on laughing gas to call this man one of the 15 funniest.

I have this thing about authors. It's like how others like to treat rock stars. In particular, there are a few that make my heart beat so heavily in my chest that I'm afraid it will break free. Augusten Burroughs is one of these authors, who has the sheer talent in him to bring me to tears or make me laugh so hard my ribs threaten to crack. This is my favorite volume of essays by him. My own copy fell apart and had to be replaced. I bought another just to donate it to my local library. Yet, another copy went to a friend of mine. I told him that he'd love it. He confessed after much prodding that he did.

Maybe I'm biased, but he engages in me a range of emotions not many authors can pull from me. Kudos to Mr. Burroughs for that.

Oh, Augusten, you never cease to make me laugh through every chapter. Not aloud, though, because people will talk.

The reason I liked this book was because it was in the spirit of "Running With Scissors", which was an incredible read. I like "Scissors" ust a drop more simply because I relate to teen characters more and "Side Effects" was mostly adulthood, I believe.

But anyway, I need to read the other memoirs. I didn't realize they went in a certain order until I was halfway thorough this book, but it's cool. I like learning about Burrough's actual life and everything. He's brave enough to write about the things he does, something I'd be too shy to do at this age.

Read it, fool, read it.

Possible Side Effects shows us more than anything that Burroughs is living a happy, successful life. While still haunted by demons from his perilous childhood, he has conquered many of them, and the rest he lives with. I find it hard to not be happy that Burroughs has reached this pinnacle in his life. He certainly deserves it. However, it's not as interesting to read about his happy life with his partner Dennis or his success as an author as it is to read about him living with his mom's shrink or going through rehab. This book had a sort of Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim feel for me. As I felt about the recent Sedaris novel, Side Effects is similar to Burroughs' earlier works, but lacking some of that hilarious edge that hooked us in the first place. I would recommend the book if you are simply curious about what's been going on with Augusten Burroughs, or if you want a light no-hassle read for a few days.

This book shows what happens when you go back to the well and the well is dry. I hated it.

hilarious, insightful, and crass all in one

I really enjoyed this book! I have read other books by Augusten Burroughs, and I think my familiarity with his troubled family and all of his eccentricities made the book slightly more appealing than if I had gone in blind. The essays remind me of a more low-brow David Sedaris, which I mean as a compliment to both authors. Burroughs doesn't necessarily leave you with a moral to the story like Sedaris does. Some of these stories (especially the one about adopting his dog, CowCow) had me stifling laughter on the T.

i'll be honest, i was a few chapters in and had no idea what the hell i was reading- but then again- i mostly read my books on the subway to and from work so i'm half asleep, reading the same paragraph over and over again. as i started getting through the book, i was actually enjoying it which is interesting because i normally despise short story books. i ended up chuckling to myself and laughing out loud (in the subway- how embarrassing) quite a few times! this book was a surprisingly big hit for me.

Happy its over.