Toil & Trouble: A Memoir marks the ninth autobiographical novel by Augusten Burroughs, renowned gay memoirist. His other memoirs delved into intimate subjects like growing up in a dysfunctional family, experiencing sexual abuse, and his alcoholism. But this one embraces a wholly different side of Burroughs: he’s a witch.
If you’ve read critically acclaimed books, you’ll be used to cover pages having the author’s name dwarf the actual title of the book, or they’ll have plastered anywhere they can: “New York Times bestseller!” Although Burroughs has had much success with his earlier memoirs — including having one adapted into a film — he’s left these details off the cover ofToil & Trouble.
In an interview with BookPage, he explained: “This is not a book for people who have read and loved my previous books — although it is! But really, this is for people who feel like they’re the only ones [who are witches], because I literally feel like the only one. I’ve felt like a freak my whole life because I’m a witch, a thing that doesn’t exist that absolutely exists.”
Burroughs starts off the novel with the proclamation that he doesn’t believe in creatures of the supernatural like vampires or zombies, but that being a witch is completely separate. Witches aren’t the broom-riding, children-eating hags of fairy tales, but instead people who are able to concentrate their intentions and manifest the extraordinary. Burroughs describes how he comes from a long line of witches, including family members that denounced it and others that used it to foretell the future.
The memoir is made up of anecdotes from Burroughs’ childhood mixed in with a present day plot of moving houses with his husband and a pack of dogs. Sprinkled throughout is his unique strain of dark humour. One example that ties together his wit and his endless supply of coincidences (that end up being witchcraft related) is when he talked back to a teacher, declaring she had the soul of a cashier. Decades later, he visited a convenience store in his hometown and found the same teacher working there at the register.
The only thing disappointing about Toil & Trouble is that, when you boil it down, it’s just the recounting of a strange series of coincidences. Do I believe they’re related to the fact that Burroughs is a witch? Sure. Regardless, when they make up the bulk of the book, they lose their oomph fast. I found myself enjoying the book while I was waiting for a bus or had nothing else to do, but by no means was I gripped by the anecdotes or the overarching plot of a very nice, gay couple moving to the country from Manhattan. This lack of engagement could be because of Burroughs’ narrow topic choice since the writing itself is clever and witty. After the first few chapters though, you get the point that Burroughs has had too many coincidences in his life to be normal, and there isn’t much more depth to the book beyond that.
Detractors of Burroughs’ work often question the veracity of his memoirs — which is fair given that he’s written nine of them now, all chock-full of the shocking and dramatic. While reading Toil & Trouble though, I came to a conclusion: it really doesn’t matter if his memoirs are more fiction than nonfiction. However, I hope some aspects of them are true. It’s inspiring that someone can go against the odds and make a career out of overcoming enormous hurdles like trauma and addiction. Everyone wants a happy ending, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading Burroughs’: he lives out his days with his loving husband, surrounded by a whole bunch of dogs.
Toil & Trouble offers a candid look at another aspect of Burroughs’ life in the form of witchcraft. Although it’s able to be enjoyed by long-time fans and newcomers alike, I’d recommend new readers start with one featuring a wider range of topics. Toil & Trouble may have lacked the depth needed to be engaging because of its narrow subject matter, but make no mistake about it: Burroughs is still a talented author able to mix just the right amount of humour into his eventful life stories to make the read one hell of a ride.
Chandy is a biology major/chemistry minor who's been a staff writer, Arts editor, and Managing Editor at The Cascade. She began writing in elementary school when she produced Tamagotchi fanfiction to show her peers at school -- she now lives in fear that this may have been her creative peak.