Running With Scissors (2002)

by Augusten Burroughs

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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▾LibraryThing recommendations

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▾Member recommendations

80
The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls (Monika_L)
40
A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father by Augusten Burroughs (ParadoxicalRae)
20
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10
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vancouverdeb: Look Me in the Eye written by John Elder Robinson, the elder brother ofAugusten Burroughs who wrote Running with Scissors. Each gives a different take on their dysfunctional family.
21
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English (224) Italian (2) German (1) French (1) Portuguese (1) All languages (229)

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Showing 1-5 of 224 (next | show all)

The true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her unorthodox psychiatrist who bore a striking resemblance to Santa Claus. o at the age of twelve, Burroughs found himself amidst Victorian squalor living with the doctor's bizarre family, and befriending a pedophile who resided in the backyard shed. The story of an outlaw childhood where rules were unheard of, and the Christmas tree stayed up all year round, where Valium was consumed like candy, and if things got dull an electroshock-therapy machine could provide entertainment. The funny, harrowing and bestselling account of an ordinary boy's survival under the most extraordinary circumstances.

This review has been flagged by multiple users as abuse of the terms of service and is no longer displayed (show).

tauruseducation | Jun 7, 2013 |

If this book wasn't so hilarious it would be tragic. (

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katemo | May 16, 2013 |

The author
Augusten Burroughs is the author of Running with Scissors, Dry, Magical Thinking: True Stories, Possible Side Effects, A Wolf at the Table and You Better Not Cry. He is also the author of the novel Sellevision, which is currently in development for film. The film version of Running with Scissors, directed by Ryan Murphy and produced by Brad Pitt, was released in October 2006 and starred Joseph Cross, Brian Cox, Annette Bening (nominated for a Golden Globe for her role), Alec Baldwin and Evan Rachel Wood. Augusten's writing has appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers around the world including The New York Times and New York Magazine. In 2005 Entertainment Weekly named him one of “The 25 Funniest People in America.” He resides in New York City and Western Massachusetts.

The review
I am usually not really into memoirs but the synopsis of this book caught me because of the obvious reasons. Ones life cannot be this weird. I had to read it myself to believe it. And I am convinced this is by far the most bizarre story I have ever read with a memoir tag on it.
The story has a light introduction about Augusten's early childhood and growing up and takes off when he is twelve. There are a lot of anecdotes about things happening while he is growing up. Though the subjects are actually very disturbing the author describes them in such a light tone that you can understand how he managed to get trough all that.
From the character descriptions it becomes clear who is important to him and who is less important. Though the whole book is very descriptive it is still hard to form images in my head cause my brain shut down even trying it.
I did enjoy reading it though. The author has a very nice style and brings the story with humor and irony. I do not think this book is for everybody. Be aware before starting it and you might just want to open it and read a few pages before you decide to get it. (

)

Ciska_vander_Lans | May 15, 2013 |

clever and sad; funny and interesting (

)

julierh | Apr 7, 2013 |

Yeah, Runing with Scissors is a bad idea. Sort of like reading this book. (

)

bjeans | Apr 3, 2013 |

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▾Published reviews

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thingScore 75

The book, which promotes visceral responses (of laughter, wincing, retching) on nearly every page, contains the kind of scenes that are often called harrowing but which are also plainly funny and rich with child's-eye details of adults who have gone off the rails.

added by Shortride | editThe New York Times Book Review, Virginia Heffernan (Jul 14, 2002)

▾Other authors

» Add other authors (6 possible)

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Augusten Burroughs	—	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Burroughs, Augusten	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Leivo, Arto	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Work-to-work relationships

Is contained in

Dry / Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

Set of 3 Books By Augusten Burroughs - Running with Scissors, Dry, Magical Thinking by Augusten Burroughs

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▾Common Knowledge

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Series (with order)

Canonical title

Running With Scissors

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

Amherst, Massachusetts, USA

Massachusetts, USA

Important events

Related movies

Running with Scissors (2006 ∙ IMDb)

Awards and honors

New York Times bestseller (Nonfiction, 2002)

Book Sense Book of the Year Honor Book (2003.9|Adult Nonfiction Honor Book, 2003)

Amazon.com Best Books (2002)

Epigraph

Look for the ridiculous in everything and you will find it.

Jules Renard

Dedication

For Dennis Pilsits

First words

My mother is standing in front of the bathroom mirror smelling polished and ready; like Jean Nate, Dippity Do and the waxy sweetness of lipstick.

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

See, Carolyn

Donahue, Deirdre

Publisher series

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (2)

Augusten Burroughs

Running with Scissors (memoir)

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

A memoir. A story told about a young boy's life living with his delusional mother, her unorthodox shrink, and his dysfunctional kids. A very interesting read!!!

Haiku summary

▾Book descriptions

Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0312938853, Mass Market Paperback)

There is a passage early in Augusten Burroughs's harrowing and highly entertaining memoir, Running with Scissors, that speaks volumes about the author. While going to the garbage dump with his father, young Augusten spots a chipped, glass-top coffee table that he longs to bring home. "I knew I could hide the chip by fanning a display of magazines on the surface, like in a doctor's office," he writes, "And it certainly wouldn't be dirty after I polished it with Windex for three hours." There were certainly numerous chips in the childhood Burroughs describes: an alcoholic father, an unstable mother who gives him up for adoption to her therapist, and an adolescence spent as part of the therapist's eccentric extended family, gobbling prescription meds and fooling around with both an old electroshock machine and a pedophile who lives in a shed out back. But just as he dreamed of doing with that old table, Burroughs employs a vigorous program of decoration and fervent polishing to a life that many would have simply thrown in a landfill. Despite her abandonment, he never gives up on his increasingly unbalanced mother. And rather than despair about his lot, he glamorizes it: planning a "beauty empire" and performing an a capella version of "You Light Up My Life" at a local mental ward. Burroughs's perspective achieves a crucial balance for a memoir: emotional but not self-involved, observant but not clinical, funny but not deliberately comic. And it's ultimately a feel-good story: as he steers through a challenging childhood, there's always a sense that Burroughs's survivor mentality will guide him through and that the coffee table will be salvaged after all. --John Moe

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Apr 2011 05:40:56 -0400)

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▾Library descriptions

The author describes his bizarre coming-of-age years after his adoption by his mother's psychiatrist, during which he witnessed such misadventures as a fake suicide attempt and front-lawn family/patient sleepovers.

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