Rent Magical Thinking: True Stories

This collection of vignettes is filled with gay cliches. There is the predictable scene of the gay man standing on his bathroom sink because he's found a small mouse trapped in his bathtub. This is followed by the most pathetic and sadistic description of killing a mouse that you could ever have the misfortune to read - it is clearly supposed to be humorous and it isn't. The other stories include predictable complaints about the short-comings of most gay men and other forgettable and all too familiar situations. Listen to 'Dry' or 'Running with Scissors'. They are much more original and, while Burroughs is just as self-absorbed as he is here, he at least exhibits some endearing qualities in those two novels/memoirs.