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62nd out of 1,040 books
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12,183 voters
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Running With Scissors
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.
So at the age of twelve, Burroughs found himself amidst Victorian squalor living with the doctor's bizarre family, and befriending a paedophile who resided in the backyard shed. The...more
So at the age of twelve, Burroughs found himself amidst Victorian squalor living with the doctor's bizarre family, and befriending a paedophile who resided in the backyard shed. The...more
Paperback, 304 pages
Published
June 1st 2003
by Picador
(first published July 28th 2002)
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My students often practice writing their responses to the following quote "Literature opens a dark window on the soul, revealing more about what is bad in human nature than what is good." I love this quote. I believe that great literature has the power to illuminate the darkness in humanity...I think of Julius Caesar, Lord of the Flies, Heart of Darkness, Native Son, the trauma literature that I study, or even Harry Potter. But in shedding light on that darkness, these novels still see...more
Family settles with "Running with Scissors" author, publisher
By Rodrique Ngowi, Associated Press Writer | August 29, 2007
BOSTON --A family that claimed author Augusten Burroughs defamed them in his best-selling book "Running with Scissors" has settled a lawsuit against the author and his publisher, their attorney said Wednesday.
Burroughs and his publisher, St. Martin's Press, agree to call the work a "book" instead of "memoirs,"...more
By Rodrique Ngowi, Associated Press Writer | August 29, 2007
BOSTON --A family that claimed author Augusten Burroughs defamed them in his best-selling book "Running with Scissors" has settled a lawsuit against the author and his publisher, their attorney said Wednesday.
Burroughs and his publisher, St. Martin's Press, agree to call the work a "book" instead of "memoirs,"...more
I kind of think there are four types of memoirs.
1) People who have had seriously interesting / crazy lives, and who also happen to be terrific writers, able to render their stories in a compelling, original way (like David Small's brilliant Stitches, or what I consider the gold-standard memoir, Nick Flynn's breathtaking Another Bullshit Night in Suck City).
2) People whose lives are interesting / crazy enough that it really doesn't matter how well they write, because thei...more
1) People who have had seriously interesting / crazy lives, and who also happen to be terrific writers, able to render their stories in a compelling, original way (like David Small's brilliant Stitches, or what I consider the gold-standard memoir, Nick Flynn's breathtaking Another Bullshit Night in Suck City).
2) People whose lives are interesting / crazy enough that it really doesn't matter how well they write, because thei...more
(Today's review is much longer than Goodreads' word-count limitations. Find the entire essay at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)
I've mentioned here regularly the entire idea of there being an "underground-arts canon;" that is, that just like the academic community, what we call the modern cutting-edge arts has now been around ...more
I've mentioned here regularly the entire idea of there being an "underground-arts canon;" that is, that just like the academic community, what we call the modern cutting-edge arts has now been around ...more
Martin
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone mentally healthy enough not to be tortured by it
I found this book profoundly disturbing and torturous to read. I understand that it is cleansing and theraputic for those that have been traumitized to write/talk aobut their problems to help with the healing process. There are very few things that my ironclad stomach can't suffer and my brain is developed enough to handle even the most shocking of situations. This book tested my patience from begining to end and in the end I was very dissapointed.
First off, from reviews and the b...more
First off, from reviews and the b...more
I'm really not a fan of this memoir craze, and Running With Scissors is no exception. It shows potential in some parts, where the author puts down the 2x4 he was using to beat you over the head with and just tells a story. Most of the time, though, he's not-so-subtly reminding you that he had a terrible childhood, his dad hated him, his mum was crazy, he didn't have anyone, etc. Yawn. In an age where 52% of marriages end in divorce, this is everyone's story. Now it's just a pissing match to see ...more
I have to warm you that I am going to give a spoiler here, the spoiler I happened upon as I had just begun reading this book and was just hooked enough by the descriptive style of writing and interesting content that I wanted to continue regardless. However, the spoiler ultimately affected my experience of the book and may affect yours as well. So don't read this, unless you've already read the book.
The family that "Augusten Burroughs" focuses most of his memoir around are suing ...more
The family that "Augusten Burroughs" focuses most of his memoir around are suing ...more
Leo Tolstoy writes, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
I’ve always read “happy families” in that quotation as meaning normal families, and assumed by its positioning that normal, happy families were more prevalent. I wonder. Tolstoy’s dichotomy seems simplistic. I’m not sure I know any family that is routinely happy or normal. My parents and brother always ensured I’d win any “crazy family” contest hands down, but even the osten...more
When I read this book, I was really appalled that people would classify it as a comedy, and that the makers of the film would treat it as such. I thought it was one of the most tragic things I have ever read in my life. The fact that this kid had to deal with not only his crazy parents, but an entirely crazy family is heartbreaking. And it's not just that they're quirky, like everyone seems to make them out to be, but they really are insane. And in the worst possible way. And then he gets t...more
I was interested in reading this after getting hints of the story in Burroughs' brother's memoir "Look Me in the Eye". My honest reaction? This book made me deeply uncomfortable. Oh, I kept reading it, the same way I and everyone else would keep eyeballing a car accident, as the old cliché goes. But there was a part of me that honestly couldn't believe that all of this stuff was real. And if it was, how could Burroughs write about it almost as if it was a years-long romp? (I know I go ...more
It has been said that Truman Capote's last book, "Answered Prayers," cost him the friendship of almost everyone he knew at that time in his life, and it has even been speculated that this contributed to his demise. He had mined the personal secrets and character flaws of those around him for literary gold, and most probably embellished as brilliant authors often do. The characters were apparently easily correlated to their real-life counterparts.
And so, things haven...more
She wasn't "Let's paint the kitchen red" crazy. She was full on head in the oven, toothpaste sandwich, I am God crazy..
paraphrased, but you get it..
paraphrased, but you get it..
Augusten Burroughs (born 1965 in Pittsburg as Christopher Robison) was named in 2005 as one, ranked 15, of “The 25 Funniest People in America” by Entertainment Weekly, People and The Guardian.
This memoir of his gay boyhood, “Running With Scissors” came out in 2003. On the same year, Burroughs came out with “Dry” about his experience being alcoholic and “Magical Thinking” a collection of memoir essays. I am not sure if any of these works made him funny to the American people but I gu...more
This memoir of his gay boyhood, “Running With Scissors” came out in 2003. On the same year, Burroughs came out with “Dry” about his experience being alcoholic and “Magical Thinking” a collection of memoir essays. I am not sure if any of these works made him funny to the American people but I gu...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This book is supposed to be funny?! I kept waiting for the amusement as I waded through increasingly appalling characters that were not likable, interesting, or remotely relatable. Crazy and abusive is not quirky and lovable. Well I suppose there is a way to write it that way, but this is written with a tinge of bitterness. What is so amusing about royally screwing up a child's life?
Between books I'd try to get back into this story that was ok but not good enough to grab my attention...more
Between books I'd try to get back into this story that was ok but not good enough to grab my attention...more
Alternatve Title: Stabbing Yourself with Scissors
I've always looked at this book, picked it up, and put it back down. I was wary because it seemed like something Sedaris would write, and I really hate Sedaris. Also, look at the cover. Always judge books by covers! It's in sepia-uh oh, you know it's a memoir. And he's got a box on his head-he must be crazy! Still, I'd heard people liked it, so when I came across it in my local used bookstore, I thought I'd give it a try.
I ...more
I've always looked at this book, picked it up, and put it back down. I was wary because it seemed like something Sedaris would write, and I really hate Sedaris. Also, look at the cover. Always judge books by covers! It's in sepia-uh oh, you know it's a memoir. And he's got a box on his head-he must be crazy! Still, I'd heard people liked it, so when I came across it in my local used bookstore, I thought I'd give it a try.
I ...more
I'm more than halfway through this, and I find myself liking it and hating it at the same time. Like, it's really interesting and funny and horrifying, and I want to be reading it, but as I'm reading it I'm mad at it for being such a ripoff of David Sedaris. What, can only gay men with screwed up childhoods write memoirs now? And even though it is funny and interesting, I definitely don't think he's on the same level as Sedaris -- this book isn't nearly as funny or poignant. And like I said, it ...more
I couldn't stand this book. I didn't take to any of the characters, finding them all uninteresting and just plain creepy. I resent people like Augustin Burroughs believing their experience, as mildly off the wall as it may be, actually amounts to something the rest of us should invest our time reading about. Just about any one of us could doctor up our pasts enough to leave some wondering how we emerged from the wreckage as reasonably functioning adults. But we just don't, because these thing...more
I quit reading this book halfway through. Like I read in another review, he's a bit of a David Sedaris wannabe. There's sort of a dark, absurd humor going on. I think he thinks he's being "light" by treating the subject matter "lightly," and sometimes it works. (I actually love David Sedaris, by the way, but I prefer listening to him over reading him.). As opposed to Mr. Sedaris, this guy gets really vulgar, offensive, and disgusting. It's all in the name of "art" ...more
I know the family, I know the ego-crazed and self-indulgent overgrown baby who wrote this book, and I find it not only sloppily written but vicious and hate-filled. It's a mother-bashing, lesbian-bashing, lying heap of crap. You can see I am worked up about it. I wouldn't mind if it were called a novel (which it is). I only object to its being called a "memoir." Read instead Jackie Leyden's beautiful hymn to the mixed blessings of growing up with a mother who had bipolar disorder, DAUG...more
Stephanie (Stepping out of the Page)
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
disliked,
read-in-2010,
mental-health,
non-fiction,
movies-or-tv,
adult-fiction,
no-longer-own,
lgbt,
title-appeal,
memoirs
This book was extremely strange, from start to finish. I can't honestly believe that this was a memoir as it doesn't seem realistic. Some (most) of the elements of this book seemed over-exaggerated and the situation seemed somewhat horrific. I did find this book amusing at points, but only because it did seem so unreal. I found some of the scenes in the book to be quite unnerving - For example, I didn't particularly enjoy reading about Augusten's graphic and uncomfortable sexual experiences with...more
I read this when it first came out in 2003 and was instantly smitten with Augusten Burroughs. He cracks me up! You won't believe that the things he writes about really happened, but allegedly, they did. I read something recently about the shrink's family and their denial about several things in the book. If you were them, wouldn't you try to deny it too, though? Anyway, great read, will have you laughing out loud. This is not your mother's kind of book, you've got to be young and hip and open-mi...more
I loved this book a lot. I am not sure that I buy that all that could have happened to one chid in one lifetime but looking at my own life it could be possible i guess. The book is a lot better than the movie but they both have their redeeming qualities.
I think that he is a great story teller and this is evident in his other books too.
I think that he is a great story teller and this is evident in his other books too.
Tina
rated it
Recommends it for:
someone I don't like
Recommended to Tina by:
book group
Shelves:
biography,
made-into-movie
I learned, along with the rest of my reading group, that running with scissors is preferable to reading this book.
My brother's account of our childhood and life with the Finches
This book was hilarious and horrifying, at once raucous and deeply disturbing. Burroughs writes like a man who has not entirely made peace with his madhouse childhood but has found a certain kind of solace in his off-center coping mechanisms. His anecdotes are hysterical but mingled with catharses that are simply stated and give the impression of a friendly confidence. This was Burroughs' biggest claim-to-fame book, quite possibly because of the sheer shock value compared with his other novels [...more
I thought I would give this book less than one star, if that were possible, because it is so trashy. The story is outrageous. I didn't buy a word of it. There couldn't be that many crazy, dysfunctional people in one place, that weren't confined in a mental institution. I have to wonder what kind of person this Augusten Burroughs is, that can write such filth. I was truly embarassed to be seen reading this book.
Yet, the book is not all bad. Mr. Burroughs surely knows how to spin a...more
Yet, the book is not all bad. Mr. Burroughs surely knows how to spin a...more
This will be by far the longest review I've done up to this point, because my take on this book is sort of complicated. Running With Scissors is extremely disturbing, and probably more so because it's all true. I found myself feeling really uncomfortable throughout much of it, but I absolutely cannot classify this book as a "dislike" because it really did manage to pull me in. Anyway, if I were reading a book on the Holocaust, would I deduct points for the disturbing subject matter? We...more
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 adoptio...more
Besides this whole hulabaloo:
http://www.vanityfair.com/fame/features/...
I also just found the author a bit too much like the poor man's David Sedaris. I have a hard time really believing either of them are always telling the truth (or even nearly) but David Sedaris is better at not telling the truth, and funnier too. In any case, I was just so over the whole grotesqueness on top of grotesqueness of the thing by the end of it, and I have a pretty high tolerance for lack of hygeine and ...more
http://www.vanityfair.com/fame/features/...
I also just found the author a bit too much like the poor man's David Sedaris. I have a hard time really believing either of them are always telling the truth (or even nearly) but David Sedaris is better at not telling the truth, and funnier too. In any case, I was just so over the whole grotesqueness on top of grotesqueness of the thing by the end of it, and I have a pretty high tolerance for lack of hygeine and ...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading Between t...: Our 3rd Book | 6 | 4 | 15 hours, 17 min ago | |
| intriguing | 7 | 92 | Jan 15, 2012 05:49am | |
| Thumbs down | 20 | 104 | Sep 30, 2011 09:20pm | |
| loved this book | 3 | 31 | Apr 14, 2011 10:09am | |
| loved this book | 1 | 5 | Mar 31, 2010 11:19pm | |
| Book is Great | 4 | 39 | Aug 03, 2008 07:18pm | |
| fresh material, interesting | 4 | 32 | Aug 03, 2008 06:51pm |
Augusten Burroughs born Christopher Robinson, son of poet and writer Margaret Robinson and younger brother of John Elder Robison.
Burroughs has no formal education beyond elementary school. A very successful advertising copywriter for over seventeen years, he was also an alcoholic who nearly drank himself to death in 1999. But spurned by a compulsion he did not understand, Burroughs beg...more
More about Augusten Burroughs...
Burroughs has no formal education beyond elementary school. A very successful advertising copywriter for over seventeen years, he was also an alcoholic who nearly drank himself to death in 1999. But spurned by a compulsion he did not understand, Burroughs beg...more
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“I know exactly how that is. To love somebody who doesn’t deserve it. Because they are all you have. Because any attention is better than no attention. For exactly the same reason, it is sometimes satisfying to cut yourself and bleed. On those gray days where eight in the morning looks no different from noon and nothing has happened and nothing is going to happen and you are washing a glass in the sink and it breaks-accidentally-and punctures your skin. And then there is this shocking red, the brightest thing in the day, so vibrant it buzzes, this blood of yours. That is okay sometimes because at least you know you’re alive.”
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294 people liked it
“You deserve to need me, not to have me.”
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173 people liked it
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Aug 04, 2010 03:48pm
Sep 06, 2011 04:02pm