A Wolf At The Table: Augusten Burroughs
Picador $32.95
By Luke Benedictus
Augusten Burroughs (Sellevision, Running With Scissors) returns for another exorcism of his savagely dysfunctional childhood.
This time he's excavating his relationship (or lack thereof) with his monstrous father.
Daddy is a sinister alcoholic with psoriatic arthritis and rotting teeth who starves Augusten of attention and the child's pet hamster to death.
But amid the recovered memories and sensationalist accusations, the father is never developed beyond grotesque caricature.
The resulting psychodrama suggests Burroughs' life-story was milked dry of material long ago.