Purchased at the San Carlos Library used book sale.

Seemingly detached, the author recollects his strange, abusive childhood and teenage years, living sometimes with his mother, sometimes with his mother’s psychiatrist. After reading editorial reviews I was expecting a humorous book, but there’s nothing funny about this child's life. In fact, it’s unbearably sad and horrifying. Neglected and abused by his unstable mother and alcoholic father, the unorthodox Dr. Finch and his family, and a gay pedophile more than twice his age, Burroughs can definitely be considered a survivor. With explicit homosexual scenes and obscene language, this book is not for the squeamish and made me very uncomfortable.

This book and the film adaptation caused much controversy, and Vanity Fair published an article in January 2007 alleging that large portions of the memoir were fabricated. The book also spurred a June 2005 lawsuit in which the Turcotte family of Cambridge, Massachusetts claimed that various family members (particularly Dr. Rodolph Turcotte, Burroughs' former legal guardian) were defamed by the book's portrayal of the eccentric Finch family. The family recently settled with Sony Pictures.

RELEASE NOTES:

I saw this on queenfrog's wishlist and I'm sending it to her in Nova Scotia, Canada as a suprise. Hope you enjoy it, queenfrog!

Thank you so much for sending me this book from my wishlist! Take care and happy reading my friend.

Well it obviously took a while to get to this book, and now I have finally read it. Wasn't bad but not one of my favourite reads.

Being donated to the common lounge area of a local seniors apartment complex for the bookshelves since I cannot take all these books with me when I move.