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Title details for Toil & Trouble by Augusten Burroughs - Available

Toil & Trouble

A Memoir

by Augusten Burroughs
Anne Bobby
Audiobook
2 of 3 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
2 of 3 copies available

"...on top of everything else, the audiobook features a multi-textural and atmospheric full-cast performance...This is a wild, spookily engaging take on a memoir from an iconic writer." — Paste
From the number one New York Times bestselling author comes another stunning memoir that is tender, touching...and just a little spooky.
"Here's a partial list of things I don't believe in: God. The Devil. Heaven. Hell. Bigfoot. Ancient Aliens. Past lives. Life after death. Vampires. Zombies. Reiki. Homeopathy. Rolfing. Reflexology. Note that 'witches' and 'witchcraft' are absent from this list. The thing is, I wouldn't believe in them, and I would privately ridicule any idiot who did, except for one thing: I am a witch."
For as long as Augusten Burroughs could remember, he knew things he shouldn't have known. He manifested things that shouldn't have come to pass. And he told exactly no one about this, save one person: his mother. His mother reassured him that it was all perfectly normal, that he was descended from a long line of witches, going back to the days of the early American colonies. And that this family tree was filled with witches. It was a bond that he and his mother shared—until the day she left him in the care of her psychiatrist to be raised in his family (but that's a whole other story). After that, Augusten was on his own. On his own to navigate the world of this tricky power; on his own to either use or misuse this gift.
From the hilarious to the terrifying, Toil & Trouble is a chronicle of one man's journey to understand himself, to reconcile the powers he can wield with things with which he is helpless. There are very few things that are coincidences, as you will learn in Toil & Trouble. Ghosts are real, trees can want to kill you, beavers are the spawn of Satan, houses are alive, and in the end, love is the most powerful magic of all.
"[Toil & Trouble] is fully brought to life in a complete and unabridged 'theatre of the mind' audio book experience by the narrative team of Augusten Burroughs, Anne Bobby, Robin Miles, and Gabra Zackman." — Midwest Book Review

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 1, 2019

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781250240149
      • File size: 350521 KB
      • Duration: 12:10:15

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      An ensemble cast supports Augusten Burroughs in the narration of his whimsical memoir, and it is a quirky romp indeed through a genuinely fertile imagination. He reveals, with his slow and sharply articulated wry drawl, that he is a witch, as are other members of his colorful family. Burroughs performs his own story with both the humor and pathos it requires. The supporting cast fleshes out his interactions with people around him--especially his mother and a favorite uncle (a reluctant witch himself)--and lays bare how witchcraft has continually intervened in their lives. While this work is not as focused as Burroughs's earlier memoirs, fans of his audiobooks will enjoy this original take on the magic in everyday life. D.G.P. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 10, 2019
      In his whimsical but thin latest, Burroughs reveals another odd facet of the famously dysfunctional family life he recalled in his bestselling Running with Scissors: witchcraft. Having received the “Gift” of witchcraft powers from his mother and grandmother, witchery for Burroughs is not about flying broomsticks but rather visions, premonitions, and intense desires, focused by improvised “magick” rituals, that somehow nudge ordinary life in a fortunate direction. (His first try ends in a schoolyard bully getting his comeuppance via a poetically fitting medical condition.) In adulthood, a series of spells enable him and husband Christopher to move from Manhattan to a dream house in rural Connecticut, and the book is at heart an affectionate, gently humorous portrait of their neurotic version of domestic tranquility, told through picaresque anecdotes sometimes tangentially related to magic. A ghostly voice sounds at the 200-year-old manse; a tornado blows through; raucous local eccentrics show up; Christopher soothes Burroughs’ manifold anxieties; Burroughs fusses over Christopher and dramatizes his own obsessions with decor, cleaning chores, landscaping, and dogs. The material is sometimes funny and touching, but too often it’s mundane—“the puppy is so perfectly behaved, not peeing once indoors.” Burroughs’s fans will love his comic riffs, but others may not fall under the spell of this uninvolving saga.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Funding for additional materials was made possible by a grant from the New Hampshire Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities.