'Best-selling author' is a front-cover catchphrase that ought to sound an alarm. Augusten Burroughs, penname for one Chris Robison, had a hit in Running with Scissors, which was very funny and may in some university thesis be proved to be a satire on contemporary American (and British) literature's obsession with self-confession. A good follow-up book would be its deeper obsession with litigation, now that Burroughs is being sued by just about everyone mentioned in his so-called memoir. Something to do with defamation and playing too loose with the truth - there's probably a book in that, too, given his admitted compulsion to write everything down. The Observer says Possible Side Effects is 'bland and ephemeral'. It's a collection of 25 short pieces spread over 291 pages, ostensibly wry, comic tales from his (still) dysfunctional life. Fans may still find Burroughs' artless antics funny. For the rest, Niall Griffiths in The Daily Telegraph nails it as 'a collection of solipsistic vignettes and self-obsessed sketches ... and what self-pitying twaddle it is ... Don't encourage these people. It's for their own good.' And that says it all.