I am not a fan of Augusten Burroughs. I think I can specifically remember the moment when I decided this. I was standing behind the counter at the Borders I was working for at the time reading Dry, Burroughs' retelling of his time as an Ad Exec and alcoholic, when I read a paragraph that struck me as especially odious and, quite literally, hurled the book onto the floor and stomped away. I don't know who it was that decided that people who have had moderately-fucked up lives were deserving of having their tell-alls published, I'm going to blame reality TV with this one(because they haven't been my scapegoat for a few weeks), but it's a distinctly repugnant trend in writing right now.Most people's lives (and I'm including Dave Eggers, Sean Wilsey, and all those others who know who they are in this rant) are just not that interesting by the time they're in their late twenties to warrant an autobiography. Truthfully, unless your mother was a truck stop whore who dressed you as a girl to turn tricks and got you hooked on smack when you were ten (and, sadly, JT LeRoy was a ruse), your life is not going to be that interesting. Instead you're going to sound like some sort of sniveling twit and I'm not going to be interested in your further works.Sellevision is Augusten Burroughs' first book, a novel of the standard fictional variety. Set in a fictional home shopping network, Sellevision follows a few months in the lives of the network's lead hosts. Max has just inadvertantly exposed himself during a children's toys segment and is left looking for a new career. Peggy Jean is a tightly wound mother with a stalker fixated on her hairy ear lobes, a husband with eyes only for the nubile teen next door and a burgeoning valium/alcohol abuse problem. Bebe is a compulsive shopper (and the network's highest-rated star) who is dating a man who seems far too good to be true and Leigh is dating a man is who is definitely not good- Howard Toast, the head of programming for Sellevision.In a fashion that reminds one of no one so much as Douglas Coupland, Burroughs builds the hilarity by slow degrees until the last thirty pages when everything comes together in a gut buster of a belly laugh. In fact, I don't think I've ever laughed harder at the last sentence of a book before; it was like the cherry on top of the proverbial sundae. Still amusing a decade after publication, Sellevision seems like a moment frozen in time. A moment where Augusten Burroughs stood atop a precipice and had to decide whether to keep up the arduous work of actually creating fictional characters or whether he should pillage his semi-interesting adolescence for uncomfortable anecdotes about psychologists finding signs in his morning bowel movements. Oh, what might have been!
Well, after reading several of Burroughs’ works, I can’t say I have an overly high opinion of his contributions. When I first asked a friend who this Burroughs person was and if I’d enjoy reading him, they told me that he was similar to David Sedaris and that if I liked Sedaris, I’d like Burroughs. Well, the truth is that I LOVE Sedaris, and tolerate Burroughs.They both seem to draw largely on personal experiences to weave humorous stories that people can relate to. How can that go wrong, you might ask. I think the difference boils down to style. Sedaris, when speaking of himself, does not come across as taking himself too seriously and is not afraid to lampoon himself along with his family and friends. Burroughs, on the other hand, always strikes me as someone who thinks very highly of himself and doesn’t to a great job of hiding this in his writing. Even when I think he has written a worthy and humorous story, I’ll trip over a sentence or comment within the work where Burroughs blows smoke up his own ass destroying the magic he was previously able to conger.All that said, Sellevision was mildly amusing and somewhat predictable.I’m sure many will disagree with me, but all in all, Burroughs is at best a B author.
What do You think about Sellevision (2003)?
I liked this book quite a bit, but it had two pretty big problems.1. There are too many characters for so small a book. It was only towards about page 180 that I figured out that Trish and Leigh were two different people. I had somehow combined them into one super character in my head until that point. I'm sure that this specific problem didn't occur for many, but it is just an example of how confusing it can be to introduce six main characters within a span of 50 pages. The big characters were Max and Peggy Jean. He should've either stuck with them or made this a 400 page book.2. It took awhile for the action to start. I felt that there were too many references to the Selevision inventory and inner workings. I understand that he was trying to be detailed and draw us into the "world of home shopping", but instead it just made the pace drag. Once he cut the rate of the references down about a quarter of the way through the book, it was a lot more enjoyable. The meat of the story was the characters and once he focused more on them, it got really good.This book was extremely funny. I found it to have more frequent laughs than his non fiction stuff. I gave it four stars because I wouldn't have a problem with reading it again. I hope Burroughs gives fiction another try.
—Benjamin Siess
I barely made it through Running with Scissors years ago, but wanted to give Burroughs another chance to redeem himself. Alas, he failed yet again. I do not understand why everyone loves his books and thinks they are so wonderful--what am I missing? This story was mildly amusing at some parts and even though I know it was supposed to be a farce, a mockery of the industry in which he writes about, it still felt like he was trying too hard. Different title, different book cover, same crappy disaster.
—Kelly
I was sorry I didn't care for this book since I adore Augusten Burroughs. It wasn't particularly terrible but it was just a cheap, trashy read that I didn't associate with the witty, biting and unflinchingly honest prose of Burroughs' memoirs. As other readers have mentioned this was a typical airplane read - rife with cliques, flat characters and plot lines that manage to be both absurd and predictable. Its zaniness reminded me a bit of a Carl Hiassen paperback. At any rate it appears fiction is not Burroughs strong suit.
—Jennie
