If I like Augusten Burroughs novels, what else might I enjoy?

July 17, 2017 9:56 PM

Been rereading his catalog lately - what other authors or books might I enjoy? It does not need to be memoirs as I enjoy fiction and other genres also.
posted by cokelessrome to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

I read Let's Not Go To The Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller (link to New York Times review) around the same time I read Running With Scissors. It's an account of the author's childhood in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. It's full of descriptions of racism and violence, but also a lot of humor. I found it hard to put down.
posted by zorseshoes at 1:50 AM on July 18, 2017 [2 favorites]

David Sedaris, who does write memoir, humour described on Wikipedia as "ostensibly autobiographical and self-deprecating, and often concerns his family life, his middle-class upbringing in the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina, his Greek heritage, homosexuality, jobs, education, drug use, and obsessive behaviors, and his life in France, London, and the English South Downs."

Although I haven't read as much Burroughs lately, I get the vibe of some common themes in his writing with those of Sedaris.
posted by AnnaRat at 2:18 AM on July 18, 2017 [4 favorites]

Augusten Borroughs' older brother John Elder Robeson- the electronic technician who created the specialty guitars for the band KISS- wrote a fantastic memoir of growing up with Asperger's, called Look Me In The Eye.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 7:10 AM on July 18, 2017 [2 favorites]

From an earlier answer of mine:

Jonathan Ames, Lauren Weedman, Laurie Notaro, Ayun Halliday, Merrill Markoe, Jeanne Darst.
God, I *loved* Darst's "Fiction Ruined My Family." Very crass, very funny and more than a little sad.

I'd also recommend John Waters' writing.
posted by whistle pig at 7:39 AM on July 18, 2017

Bill Bryson. His In a Sunburned Country made me laugh out loud. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is a great memoir.
posted by answergrape at 8:15 AM on July 18, 2017

Seconding Jonathan Ames
posted by Clustercuss at 9:20 AM on July 18, 2017

Seconding David Sedaris. Start with Me Talk Pretty One Day.
posted by radioamy at 10:24 AM on July 18, 2017

Response by poster: Thank you for all the great suggestions!
posted by cokelessrome at 11:26 AM on July 19, 2017