You Better Not Cry by Augusten Burroughs
(Format used for this read: Audiobook)
As soon as I finished my last audiobook which was a Christmas-y one, I wanted to find another one that was again holiday themed…but maybe not so “typical.”
The book I had just finished was full of traditional feel good, yuletide like vibes with a nice, neat little wrapped up with a bow type of happy ending.
Which was wonderful and enjoyable…but I was ready for something a smidge different…maybe a little less predictable…maybe a little more gritty… yet still heavy on the Christmas vibes (I’m trying to keep my brain in the spirit, yall)
I definitely didn’t want to go the whole Christmas “murder mystery” route…and yall know how I feel about anything even a smidge on the scary side….
I saw the cover for this Christmas themed memoir, read the review, and thought to myself “Oh yeah…this DEFINITELY is the opposite of what I just read….I’M IN.”
Because sometimes you need some dark sarcasm alongside your heartwarming tales….
Just like you also sometimes need a shot of rum alongside your gingerbread cookie. 🤣
It’s called BALANCE, yall.
Here is the official short summary:
“You’ve eaten too much candy at Christmas…but have you ever eaten the face off a six-footstuffed Santa? You’ve seen gingerbread houses…but have you ever made your own gingerbread tenement? You’ve woken up with a hangover…but have you ever woken up next to Kris Kringle himself?
Augusten Burroughs has, and in this caustically funny, nostalgic, poignant, and moving collection he recounts Christmases past and present—as only he could. With gimleteyed wit and illuminated prose, Augusten shows how the holidays bring out the worst in us and sometimes, just sometimes, the very, very best.”
If the author of this memoir sounds familiar to you, it’s probably because he is also the author of the bestselling book “Running With Scissors” (again… a memoir) that became a movie some years back starring Alec Baldwin and Annette Benning.
I never read the book OR saw that movie…I remember thinking it looked a bit strange and I SHOULD check it out (I like certain levels of strange in my entertainment)…but I never did. I have never dug into any of Augusten Burrough’s work before this book right here.
And while he is quite interesting, I am still on the fence on if I actually like him or not.
This book isn’t exactly filled with wonderful and delightful Christmas memories….and it isn’t exactly a warm and fuzzy page turner….
I expected it to be darkly humourous….which it is…and there is a touch of heart warming that happens…but only occasionally. I kinda thought there would be a bit more considering it was a Christmasy memoir.
But Augusten did NOT have that great of a childhood…or really even a great adulthood, until he got sober.
He had some really traumatic shit happen to him in his formative years…and it kinda continued on into his grown up years.
But even a life that is filled with darkness still has some light that shines thru…. and he finds a way to tell stories of his various Christmases—traumatic or not—with an off beat, sarcastic sense of humor.
There are some joyful moments amid the mess…and there is always humor to be found…even if it is sometimes highly disturbing, inappropriate, cringeworthy and downright depressing.
So you get this odd combination of sometimes one of those adjectives…sometimes another….and then sometimes all of them at once.
And despite the tough times Christmas usually brings him…he still is a HUGE fan of the holiday.
It’s a weird book yall…
and I think it’s safe to say Augusten is a weird person.
BUT…
I usually like weird.
Weird most of the time equals interesting.
At the same time though it can be unsettling.
And while I haven’t experienced the same life struggles that he has, I myself have had my own tough journeys I walked thru as a child and as an adult….which means plenty of my own Christmas memories are the complete opposite of a wholesome holiday Hallmark movie.
But I…like Augusten…still just love the holiday.
And I….like Augusten…use dry, sarcastic humor as a coping mechanism.
While I can’t say I enjoyed hearing about some of the memories he speaks about…some were downright painful to hear… I did find that I could NOT stop listening to this book…I was just so intrigued.
I finished it in 2 1/2 days.
He kinda reminds me a bit of David Sedaris, who I really enjoy.
They have alot of similarities… while they are both humorous in a dry, sarcastic, and often times jarringly inappropriate way, when you read David Sedaris you still have an overall sense of a kind of warmth.
Well I don’t know if warmth is the right word…..
Maybe softness is better?
I don’t know…that word doesn’t seem right either…maybe it’s more like an odd sensation of soft warmness alongside the sharp hard edges.
Whatever that feeling is, uou definitely don’t feel that when you read Augusten Burrough.
There is a hardness that never quite fades….but I think that is part of what makes reading about his life so interesting.
He stays raw and real….even if it feels kinda yucky….because it’s his truth and lived experience.
And I appreciate a person who can just lay it all out there….even the things they’ve experienced that are hard to say out loud and difficult to admit to.
As I’m typing I’m trying to decide if I liked this book….
I think I did.
It FOR SURE had the different vibe I was going for …although maybe just off the rails a bit opposite than the way I was trying to fall.
If traditional Christmasy books aren’t your thing…and you also love David Sedaris….and you like weird and inappropriate and darkly sarcastic humor…then I think this book may be the one for you for this season.
Will I check out more of his work?
I think I will….but maaayybbbeeeee just not during the holidays. 😬