13. Running With Scissors

By: Augusten Burroughs

That this book has been widely compared to David Sedaris is understandable, but only on the very surface. Both authors are gay, and both authors write quirky and humorous memoirs about their dysfunctional families. Ok. If the dysfunction in Sedaris' family could be described as an irritating rash, the dysfunction in Burroughs' would be the slightly more irritating affliction of leprosy.

Which is why, as the devastation that is Burroughs' life unfolds, the comparison rings so false. After spending a few hundred pages with Sedaris, you're comfortable in the knowledge that what ever sets you and/or your family apart, you're not alone. After spending a few hundred pages with Burroughs, you're left wondering how its possible for people like those he grew up with to have actually existed, and how he retains any kind of humor about his situation.

His situation just goes from bad to worse. His mother goes crazy, he goes to live with a crazier family, he gets raped, his mother gets raped, his closest friend prostitutes herself, and anyone who reaches out a helping hand to him ends up, well, not exactly helping.

Its a strange kind of book, I don't know exactly if I've ever read anything so tragic that was dealt with so humorously before. As a result, I feel glad that
Burroughs' made it out alive, much less with the ability to laugh (and make others laugh) about it, but at the same time, theres something very discomforting about turning the story into a comedy.

In conclusion; funny like leprosy, a little uncomfortable, not like Sedaris.

12. How to Be Good

By: Nick Hornby

H2BG starts out as a pretty depressing read actually - Kate is in a miserable marriage, married to David, "The Angriest Man" (according to his newspaper column), and is in the middle of an affair with a guy she could really couldn't care less about. Just when things couldn't get any worse- they do. Because David suddenly becomes "nice", and that just makes things harder.

David becomes a model citizen and all-around-good guy when he visits GoodNews, a faith healer. The irony of course, is that he visited the faith healer with the intent on pissing off Kate. However, David and Goodnews strike up a friendship and then set about on devising a plan to save the world, or at least, make it a much nicer place. This makes things even more difficult for Kate.

H2BG changes tone around the time that David makes his transformation, and becomes a reflection on all the denial of harsh realities that makes middle class life possible. It does this quite well- Hornby uses David's over-zealousness at doing what he can to help others to show how this willful ignorance is what holds society together, but also that being mindful of it doesn't help either.

One of the nice little things I enjoyed about this book is a passing reference to the character of Dick in High Fidelity. He has a small inconsequential cameo. Sometime I think that these little self-referential moments are nothing more than ego-boosts, but there is something fun about that recognition of a character from another book. Its like spying someone you know on the street. Hey! What are you doing here?