Lust & Wonder: A Memoir

by Augusten Burroughs

Overview

From the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author comes an intimate look at the driving forces in one man’s life.

With Augusten's unique and singular observations and his own unabashed way of detailing both the horrific and the humorous, Lust & Wonder is a hilariously frank memoir that his legions of fans have been waiting for. His story began in Running with Scissors, endured through Dry, and continues with this memoir, the capstone to the life of Augusten Burroughs.

Funny, sweet, alarming, and ultimately, moving and tender, Lust & Wonder is an experience of a book that will resonate with anyone who has loved and lost and loved again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780594924128
Publisher:	St. Martin's Press
Publication date:	03/29/2016
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

AUGUSTEN BURROUGHS is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of This is How, A Wolf at the Table, You Better Not Cry, Possible Side Effects, Magical Thinking, Dry, Running with Scissors, and Sellevision. He lives in Connecticut.

Editorial Reviews

10/26/2015
In this seventh autobiographical work, bestselling author Burroughs describes life after rehab. Back in N.Y.C. as a freelance ad copywriter, Burroughs keeps finding what he thinks must be love, only to discover that he’s missed the target again. Romantic dead-ends intertwine with whirlwind literary success and Burroughs comes to the age-old realization that money and fame don’t buy happiness, especially for someone with anxiety disorders and severe childhood trauma. Struggling in a purgatory of mediocre relationships, Burroughs is sustained by a recurring dream of a handsome blond man driving a Jeep, a dream that becomes reality. Burroughs has been mining his life since 2002, and once-rich veins seem to be exhausted. Though his wit still shines and stings, this effort is troubled by odd gaps and omissions. One example, of several, is the failure to make more of Burroughs’s romance with a man dying of AIDS. Burroughs did cover that relationship (in Dry), but neglects it here, sacrificing coherence to avoid repetition. Potentially fascinating material, such as his debilitating anxiety and a compulsion to buy precious gems (to the point of bankruptcy), is similarly abbreviated. Fourteen years after Running with Scissors, Burroughs seems to be pacing in circles. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Burroughs has lived this story, so his delivery perfectly matches the tone and pacing needed. Focusing on a series of failed relationships, Burroughs lets his voice rise in both tension and tenor as he analyzes the reasons, with help from analysis, that some relationships work and others are doomed by the personal quirks of both people." -AudioFile.com

From the Publisher

10/15/2015
Burroughs first made his name (and his No. 1 New York Times best-selling fortune) with Running with Scissors and has kept up the pace ever since. Here, in a return to the genre, he uses a chronology of various relationships, rising and declining, to consider the issues of love and lust and how to distinguish between them. For anyone who has ever been in a relationship.

Library Journal

Bestselling memoirist and narrator Augusten Burroughs’s seventh installment in his epic journey to find personal fulfillment ends on a happy note, following a long exploration of love and sex. Burroughs has lived this story, so his delivery perfectly matches the tone and pacing needed. Focusing on a series of failed relationships, Burroughs lets his voice rise in both tension and tenor as he analyzes the reasons, with help from analysis, that some relationships work and others are doomed by the personal quirks of both people. Specific in its examination of this one life, the book offers universal themes that touch everyone, and the resolution should give to hope to anyone who still yearns for the lust and wonder of love. R.O. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2016 - AudioFile