Content Warning: This section features graphic depictions of sexual assault of a minor, drug use, domestic violence, and derogatory language in reference to people with mental health conditions.

Augusten’s memoir—now referred to as a book—begins in 1976 as Augusten, currently 11 years old, watches his mother, Dierdre, analyze her appearance in the mirror. She wears an expensive dress, tall leather heels, nail polish, and lipstick but can’t get over the feeling that “something isn’t right” (1). Augusten’s mother dresses up only when she’s going out somewhere, and every time Augusten sees her this way, he becomes anxious at the thought of her leaving. She takes two maxi pads and sticks them to her shoulders, now satisfied with her appearance, and grabs her cigarette from a makeshift clamshell ashtray.

Augusten admires his mother, thinking she looks just like an actress, but hates the fact that she’s leaving. He introduces the family dog, Cream, and his 17-year-old brother, who lives in another part of town. Augusten’s mother is on her way to a poetry reading, and his father sits in the basement and watches television alone. Augusten has full reign of the main floor while his mother’s out, and he spends the time playing with the lights, wearing one of his mother’s dresses, and reading aloud from her poetry book “with her distinctive and refined Southern inflection” (7).