Finished this one up a few nights ago. In writing this book, Burroughs completes his story in reverse order from
Running With Scissors. In that book, I don't remember that he discussed his father all that much, other than pointing out that he had an explosive temper and that his parents fought quite a bit. A more complete picture of his father emerges in
A Wolf At The Table, and it's quite interesting to say the least. By day, his father was a philosophy professor at UMass. At home, he was very distant from his children and preferred to grade papers or watch t.v. Augusten kept tick marks on a piece of paper of the times that he was pushed away, compared to the times he was allowed to crawl onto his dad's lap. He stopped keeping track as the latter category never had a mark. He does discuss why his father probably ended up the way he did. He grew up with an aunt whose children doted on him. When his parents showed up to pick him up, he was given a beating after being asked to be tucked into bed at night.
Burroughs's dad was big into playing mind games with Augusten. During one of the many times his mother took him away for a short time after a fight, Augusten returned home to find that his pet hamster had starved to death. Up to that time, his mother promised him that his dad would take care of it and that everything was fine. It was maddening to read how his mother kept trying to cover up the bad things the father did, despite all the evidence to the contrary. When Augusten walked downstairs, the father asked him how the hamster was.
In another instance, he would wake up in bed and find his father staring at him. In one particular instance, the family dog stood over Augusten growling at his dad. The dog later developed a tumor in his mouth and despite Augusten's constant pleading, his father refused to take the dog to be treated-ultimately, the dog died.
There are some other hair raising episodes in the book, one of which involves a stand off of sorts between Augusten's older brother and his father. In it, Augusten brings the older brother his gun and tells him to shoot their father. He didn't, though the brother did teach Augusten how to fire the gun in order to protect himself, since the brother would no longer be living in the house. The saddest part was the ending of the book. The father was in intensive care after falling backwards down a flight of stairs. He looked at Augusten and tried to say something, but couldn't and turned away.
This was an excellent book to read that flowed very well. It was intelilgently written and from a psychological view, it was interesting to see how Augusten and his mother tried to cope with his dad's insanity. I'm puzzled as to how this man could've "kept it together" all the while, wrecking havoc at home, but I suppose if any oddity did surface, folks probably attributed it to some professors being "weird." This is a good book, do check it out if you like his work.
One of the more eyebrow raising suggestions is that his dad put out a cigarette on Augusten's forehead. 