Having plumbed the depths of his unconventional adolescence (Running with Scissors) and recovery from alcoholism (Dry), Augusten Burroughs finally brings into greater focus the menacing figure hovering just outside the edge of his earlier tales: his father. Darker and more wrenching than Burroughs' prior work, A Wolf at the Table explores the alcoholic and abusive tendencies of the man responsible for half his gene pool. And while the recent spate of memoir exaggerations (see Margaret Seltzer) raises questions as to the "truthiness" of Wolf's tale, it remains a compelling and harrowing read.