Magical Thinking: True Stories
by Augusten Burroughs
St Martin's Press, 288 pages, $23.95, ISBN: 0312315945


Friends had been recommending Augusten Burroughs, but I think humorists, gay or straight, are an acquired taste. I enjoy the work of David Sedaris, so I gave Burroughs a chance.  His new book, Magical Thinking is slow to start. There are essays on a childhood appearance in a commercial, a fascination with renowned transsexual Christine Jorgenson (to the point where he seriously considered sexual reassignment surgery) and training as a Barbizon model.

With "I Dated an Undertaker," Burroughs had me hooked. In this piece, he discussed having oral sex in the same room where Rose Kennedy's wake had been held. I was so thrilled by this piece, I bought Running With Scissors, an earlier collection of essays., There's something debauched about Burroughs that's really appealing. He's quirkier than Sedaris and he's parlayed moments from his life and sees them from a rather jaundiced viewpoint. Magical Thinking refers to a psychological term describing the belief that one exerts more influence over events than one actually does. This book provides twenty seven examples from this former ad executive with astounding aplomb.

Sometimes Burroughs does have influence, but frequently, he's manipulated, as in "Debby's Requirements," wherein Burroughs engages in a test of wills with a grandmother maid who has very expensive needs as she calculatedly rearranges his life.  One wishes we all had the wit Burroughs musters when taking revenge on a telemarketer. He certainly hasn't got influence over the fate of "Mark the Shrink," or how the beloved "Schnauzer" he and his partner Dennis have adopted, has horned its way into their bed. Dreadful experiences in touristy Key West and trying to outwit a pesky North American Possum are counterpointed with Dennis' opinions of the 21st Century Amish. His brush with fame is related in "I'm Gonna Live Forever," while in "Roid Rage," Burroughs, a recovering alcoholic (and graduate of Minnesota's Pride Institute) trades one addiction for another in the eternal gay man's quest for the body beautiful.

Augusten Burroughs is a treat to read, and his writing passes the time on those long bus rides across town, or in the quiet of your bedroom before putting out the lights at night. Magical Thinking is magical entertainment.