Life would be a lot easier for Augusten Burroughs if he just smacked the tag "the characters portrayed here are not real" on his memoirs or called them fiction. The controversial author faced a lawsuit from the children of the psychiatrist he lived with in his sad and hilarious memoir, Running with Scissors.
Tonight, Burroughs will be reading from his fifth and latest take on real life, A Wolf at the Table, at 7:30 p.m. at Lincoln Theatre, 541 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach. The book explores terrifying, early memories of his father, who is dead. His father’s friends are already calling the wicked depiction into question.
A New York Times review last week questioned its believability: "Determinedly unfunny, awkwardly histrionic and sometimes anything but credible, it repudiates everything that put Mr. Burroughs on the map."
Free tickets are available at all Books & Books locations. As of Friday afternoon, there was a healthy supply. Burroughs is expected to sign books and field questions. But before you ambush the guy too hard about his truths, think of your own memory of waiting in a downpour for hours to be picked up from school and how your mom assures it was a light sprinkle that lasted five minutes. Sniff, sniff.
