A Wolf at the Table

by Augusten Burroughs

This is yet another autobiographical book by Augusten Burroughs about his unusual and unusually disturbing childhood. But unlike the previous volumes A Wolf at the Table has nothing of the hilarity and scurility that one has come to expect from him.

The book focusses on his father and the difficult (and sometimes non-existant) relationship he had with him, made even worse by the absence of his older brother, John Elder Robison, who had a different way of dealing with the father or avoiding him altogether.

The man was distant, uninterested and brooding. Little Augusten struggles to get him to simply pay attention, barely ever reaching for something as big as love or even care.

One episode that I feel will forever stay with me is this:
The boy realizes that when his father comes home he is always happy to encounter the family dog. In a desperate attempt to make his father smile at him as he does the pet, he puts on a dog mask and behaves like a canine.

My heart broke a little with ever page.

9/10