A New York Times bestseller, Augusten Burroughs dares to write down what everyone is thinking in his book, entitled Magical Thinking. A collection of short stories and essays, the collection is a mix of ridiculously funny moments, warped experiences and sometimes even shocking and twisted tales.
The 27 stories are chock full of Burroughs’ natural wit and seemingly strange perspective on life. While entertaining readers Burroughs manages to make delightfully honest observations and commentary about all aspects of culture, popular or otherwise. If “Tales of a Transexual” and “Ass Burger” aren’t enough of a red flag, the titles of the stories are only a snippet of the brillant writing done in Magical Thinking. Anyone who actually writes down the details of fantasies about the death of enemies is obviously not afraid to speak his mind.
Burroughs defines magical thinking as “a schizotypal personality disorder attributing to one’s own actions…assuming that one has a greater influence over events than is actually the case.” In the case of Burroughs’ book, magical thinking relates to both the nature of the story and the thoughts provoked in the reader.
Joanna Davila can be contacted at j.davila1@umiami.edu.