Book Review: A Wolf at the Table

After Mother’s Day, Father’s Day is upon us once more. What kinds of memories do you have with your dad? Are they mostly pleasant? Or is it more of struggle, tears, and absence?

Having a Father is an important part of our lives. Heck, without our fathers, we won’t be alive today. Having sex and having a baby is way way easier than overseeing the growth and upbringing of that child. This why being a Father is such a difficult job.

In preparation for Father’s day, Penstalker.com presents several articles, book reviews, and movies related to the difficult process of being a Father. We begin with a book review of Augusten Burroughs’ “A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father” published by St. Martin’s Press.

Burroughs writings smack of honesty so brutal, the reader is left grasping for breath and analyzing his own experiences concerning his father. This honesty enables Burroughs to write about his painful childhood and what he thinks about his father, and how his father, the wolf at the table, shaped the Burroughs is now. Through the benefit of hindsight, the author is able to inculcate humor into his memoir and along the process, he arrives at the insights and the inner character that would enable him later in life to succeed.

How would you imagine living with a sociopath father? I wonder how I could survive each day. No wonder, Burroughs had a lot of emotional scars because of his father. This is why in his previous books, he talks about the mental illness of his mother and how they cope with it. This time, he has amassed enough courage to talk about his dad. The humor he integrates is perhaps one way for him to deal with the grim realities of his biography.

Through the 256 pages, Burroughs described the rage, the cruelty, and the unreasoning anger of his father. The author didn’t feel love or concern from his father. He saw through the masks that his father showed, yet deep within him, he knew what was truly going on.

At first glance, the events recounted by Burroughs are unbelievably cruel and altogether sad. You have to read them in the book for you to believe. On the whole, the book is sad, dark, and melancholic. But that’s the way life is. It is not easy to read as you may find yourself cringing from fear from time to time. It is a WONDER that Augusten Burroughs survived through his painful childhood.

His childhood was such a nightmare that he has trouble remembering which of his memories truly occurred and which among them are but bad dreams. Augusten’s writing is full of wit, insight, and brutal honesty into the state of mind of a sociopath father.

For Burrough’s insight into the human condition, for the lack of love, and for the love of a Father that a lot of young boys and girls never find, this book is a sad but excellent read. If you want to explore father-children relationship, not just the good ones but also the ugly ones, go buy this book and read it. Be thankful of your own childhood experience.

Burrough’s courageous telling of his own story is highly laudable! Clearly another good read from the author of Running with Scissors, Sellevision, Dry, Magical Thinking and Possible Side Effects.