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) I'm usually an enthusiastic Burroughs reader, but this book was a thorough disappointment.
I trudged a little over halfway through the book until I finally let myself stop. Avoiding a book simply for the content is not okay. Yet I still pushed forward since this is by Augusten Burroughs. But as I said, I came to the conclusion that this was just not worth my time.
It's a basically a big whine about his father, and more sob stories of his adolescence. Yeah, there's a lot of comedy mixed in. Too bad it's not enough to save this load of profit-inspired garbage.
Sorry Burroughs. I'm not quite the fan I used to be.
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) People are allowed to be people. It is now more acceptable for gender roles to be abstract in today's society. At least, more people are tolerant of it. Unfortunately, this book's author had to spend half of her adolescence in psych wards because our population wasn't always so accepting. This was further exaggerated by the fact that Scholinski was a continuous trouble-maker and rule-breaker. And, oh my god, she's also a lesbian!
Scholinksi wore her hair short and her clothes boyish. She would be allowed privileges in the hospitals when she would wear makeup or socialize more with the boys. There was actually a DSM diagnosis that claimed she was having problems identifying with her gender role. Oh and surprise surprise, they also tried to analyze her in the classic, now debunked Freudian style.
Scholinksi would blame herself for the circumstances surrounding her, since everyone else was. She'd try her best to conform to the program rules only to get certain freedoms. But she knew who she was and that she detested makeup and girly clothes. Also, she recognized that she'd get butterflies in her stomach around certain females.
This book is a story of her growth and the pain she had to endure in this setting. She had to deal with abuse both here and at home around her family. The end goes on to explain where the author is today, and how she pulled herself out of this mess. Also, it briefly explores some of the other patients' lives as well.
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) This book held a good insight into an immigrants life in the United States. However, it just didn't capture my attention most of the time. I found my mind wondering off during a lot of the reading.
The author is from Vietnam. Her and her siblings were brought over by their father. Here, he remarried to a Hispanic American woman that was a very good replacement mother to the children, though very much an alternative to the ideal house wife of the time. The father developed an alcohol and gambling problem, and worked a lot. He was often absent and distant from his family.
The girls' birth mother hadn't been notified when their father took them, nor did he leave a note. Later on in the author's life, she was finally able to meet her when she also immigrated to the states. The author also found about other half siblings she had.
Good basis for the book, but not the most interesting content. But I can't critique honest writing too much, really.
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) "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy." (pg. 1) A 'classic' line, though I personally have never heard it before this book. This guy, on the other hand, Howard Dully, had survived a lobotomy he was given at 12 years old. And he didn't become a vegetable, or a complete robot. So then his 'evil' stepmother, as she can somewhat be legitimately called in this case, sent him away to insane asylums and jail. He was labeled and became a victim of his 'role' and his operation most of his life. Then he decided to tell his story.
How many people do you know that have undergone lobotomies? I don't know any. The stats are scary, the procedure is scary, and how long it was allowed to go on: scary.
The author did his research thoroughly on everything he wrote about. His memory lapses, family, the area he's from, his doctor, and of course lobotomies themselves. He skillfully puts himself all on the table; first for the NPR audience. It's moving.
Dr. Freeman, Dully's and many other individuals' lobotomist, drove around in a "lobotomobile" where he would tour the country giving lobotomies from tools he made himself. Even an electroshock device that was said to be falling apart. There are many other odd, disturbing facts Dully notes about the mental health and juvenile justice system at that time. It's an eye-opening read. But I listened to it on audio book so I don't have as many great quotes that sample the writing as I usually do.
"He began doing lobotomies in his office. He stretched the patients out on a table, knocked them out using electroshock, punctured the skull using his Uline ice pick, [through the upper eye socket,] and swung the ice pick back and forth across their frontal lobes. He waited for the bleeding to stop, then sent the patient home, sometimes in a taxi cab." (pg. ?)
(
) I'm usually an enthusiastic Burroughs reader, but this book was a thorough disappointment.
