Summary Of Possible Side Effects By Augusten Burroughs

“Possible Side Effects” by Augusten Burroughs is a collection of short stories throughout the life of Augusten Burroughs. This novel was full of humor and wit, which made for a very fun read. It contained stories from Burroughs’s childhood, regarding the tooth fairy and Santa Claus, and there were some from closer to the present, as well. There were quite a few essays detailing his highly dysfunctional family, including a mother who was always more interested in her work rather than actually taking care of her son and his brother who nicknamed him “Varmint” and treated him as his slave. He told stories of his friends, including one where he helped a friend write a personal ad which led to her meeting her future wife and continuously touched upon his alcoholism and much more. Augusten Burroughs had many interesting stories to tell and the reader could easily to relate to many of them.
For example, he says at one point, “Just as I had long suspected, a person didn't really need math for anything anyway.
Maybe some people did. Some limited people” (Burroughs). Anybody who has ever taken a math class can relate to this quote, which is something readers love. The purpose of this novel was mainly to share these stories and to relate those who choose to read it. This novel was probably one that Burroughs wrote in order to get things off of his chest and doing it in an entertaining manner. He definitely succeeded in making it entertaining and humorous, with quotes like, “Throwing things horrified me. I suffered extreme, paralyzing anxiety when it came to anything remotely athletic. I wouldn't even run to catch the school bus because I knew I'd trip and then get teased for a year”
(Burroughs).
As good as this book was generally, there are some flaws in it. For example, there is no organization. One of the essays is about his childhood, while the next jumps to when he is an adult, and then it skips back to when he was a teenager. He also brought up some events with no background information. If one knows nothing of Augusten Burroughs prior to diving into this novel, many parts will lead them slightly confused. In one of the essays, he begins by mentioning his return from rehab, when rehab had not been mentioned at any other point before that. It can be assumed that he went to rehab for alcoholism, but the reader does not know for sure. In addition, many of the stories had no depth to them. They were just there for entertainment and left the reader wondering what the point was. The content, altogether, was very intriguing and inviting, though. Burroughs fed the reader material to think hard about and oftentimes made them feel things deeply. A quote to prove this is, “I understood at once, I am not living, but actively dying. I am smoking, living unhealthily. I’m shutting down. I need to go the other way, inside. And it was so clear to me what I was doing. It was suddenly perfectly clear” (Burroughs). This quote makes the reader think about their own life and what they are doing. It makes a person want to be better.
All material considered, this book deserves a ⅘. Although some of the stories do lack some depth, the majority have real meaning or strong climaxes. “Possible Side Effects” was a very entertaining read, full of humor and thought-provoking sentences. Augusten Burroughs did a spectacular job with this book.