Augusten Burroughs, the memoirist who told tales of his mother in Running With Scissors and his father in the recent A Wolf at the Table, takes note of another father figure - Robert Redford.

Writing a diary entry that ran this weekend on The Times of London's web site, Burroughs described his recent visit to Redford's Sundance resort - and how he found in an eccentric ceiling fan evidence that the resort's atmosphere "is a father's work."

Burroughs writes:

At Sundance, when you need to go down the hill to the store, you do not get into your car. You call the front desk and tell them that you'd like a ride. Then you go outside and wait. And while you wait, it is impossible not to feel like a kid again, waiting for your father to pick you up for soccer practice or violin lessons. After dinner somebody asks: "Do you need a lift home?" If at first this annoys you, it will come to be the thing that charms you most.

A developer, perhaps, would have offered a bus. Only a father, however, would give you a ride.

Burroughs has video online from his Sundance visit posted on his website. Check it out.

Labels: Books, Robert Redford, Sundance