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Running with Scissors

3.6 of 5 stars 3.60 · rating details · 173,018 ratings · 9,124 reviews

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 story of an...more

Paperback, 320 pages

Published June 1st 2003 by Picador (first published July 10th 2002)

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Mar 23, 2011 Erin rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 seek to uplif...more

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Aug 29, 2007 Timothy rated it 1 of 5 stars

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," in the author's note and to change the acknowledgments page in futu...more

43 likes · like · see review

Nov 21, 2010 oriana rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2007

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 theirs will necessarily be...more

60 likes · like · see review

Aug 12, 2008 Jason Pettus rated it 1 of 5 stars

(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 long enough (arguably...more

41 likes · like · see review

Dec 31, 2007 Martin rated it 1 of 5 stars · 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 book cover I was...more

56 likes · like · see review

Oct 16, 2007 Friend the Girl rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who think David Sedaris is too deep

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

21 likes · like · see review

Aug 21, 2007 Stephanie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: any old person

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 him. They say th...more

13 likes · like · see review

view all 5 comments

Stacy Update about lawsuit. Victory for Augusten!

St. Martin's Press is pleased to announce a very favorable settlement of the lawsuit over Running With Scis...more
Sep 11, 2007 02:01pm

Stephanie Hi Stacy, I miss you and I'm glad we're in touch, even if it's about books. But besides that, oddly enough I read something about this just last night...more
Sep 11, 2007 03:56pm

Mar 17, 2010 Ellen rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: autobiography-memoir

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 ostensibly “happy” families I’ve known have had their times of craziness and discontent.

Nevertheless…There is crazy and there is CRAAAZZY.

I’d heard of Running with Scissors for years, but hadn’t read the memoir or watched the movie. I’d begun reading Burroughs’ Dry the other day, but then thought I should start with his first memoir. He’s apparently gained some skill because what struck me first is how poorly Scissors is written. There’s no attempt or knowledge here to use language other than in its most utilitarian sense. Burroughs communicates meaning, but goes no further. I got the impression he used that childhood diary he kept referring to in the book and just added some transition. It has all the poetry of the “and then, and then, and then…” type of narrative your children will sometimes torture you with. …And yes, I know I just ended a sentence with a preposition.

More damningly, though, is Burroughs’ in your face content. In a chapter coyly entitled, “The Joy of Sex (Preteen Edition),” Burroughs’ gives us a long, detailed description of a blow job he – then only 13 years old - gives or is mostly forced to give to his 33 year-old quasi-brother, Neil, who has been adopted by the crazy Finch family, who later adopts Augusten. No matter what the circumstances, this is rape, and yet, this scene, like so many others in the memoir, lacks poignancy because of Burroughs’ relentlessly “take this,” now “take that” mode of narration.

Burroughs apparently views memoir as a form of assault. I’m not surprised to learn he’s been in a lawsuit regarding details of this book, because it feels ramped up. Worse yet, given that I’ve never felt the line between fiction and nonfiction is very clear, and consequently do not get too worked up when I hear that a memoir or biography isn’t always “true,” Burroughs memoir fails to move his audience in any way. Ultimately, I felt like I was reading one crazy, sordid, or otherwise repugnant episode after another, each consciously more sensational than the last. There was no point, and no resolution.

The only point was how much the reader, like Augusten, wants to take in.
(less)

12 likes · like · see review

Feb 12, 2008 Annalisa rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir-biography

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. But it's a...more

16 likes · like · see review

Apr 25, 2007 eliza rated it 2 of 5 stars

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 totall...more

22 likes · like · see review

Jan 13, 2008 Alex Templeton rated it 2 of 5 stars

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 against al...more

18 likes · like · see review

Jul 06, 2008 William Van rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People with absurd, dark sensibilities.

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't changed all that much. Augu...more

35 likes · like · see review

Jun 17, 2007 Tina rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir

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

7 likes · like · see review

Jun 20, 2008 Scott rated it 5 of 5 stars

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..

50 likes · like · see review

Jan 29, 2011 K.D. Oliveros rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: gay-lit, memoirs

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 guess it must b...more 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 guess it must be his first novel, “Sellevision” (2000) which was a comedy fiction that contains themes of greed and obsession and was adapted into a television series.

I did not find this book funny. It is okay though. I admire Burroughs courage to tell his story. There is a controversy that he weaved lies and/or exaggerated the truth about his mother’s psychiatrist. However, there is the so-called poetic licence that writers are entitled to use to make their writings more interesting to their intended readers. That is probably the reason why the court ruled that this book, in its succeeding editions, be called fiction rather than a memoir. Fair enough.

Still saying that you have a neurotic, drug-addict, lesbian mother and you had your first oral and anal sex experiences at the age of 13 are unthinkable for me. He has the intention to shock, I have no doubt about it because he told those sexual experiences like he was in court: detailed and disgusting. I just don't see the point. I read other gay boyhood memoirs like Edmund White's A Boy's Own Story or Jean Genet's Our Lady of the Flowers. Edmund White did not go to details of his homosexual experiences but I was able to emphatize and almost imagine the pain of what some gay boys have to endure to be accepted.

Burroughs is a total reverse of White. Burroughs is proud of being gay and he did not reserve anything for his more "sensitive" readers. The vivid sexual details that he incorporated in the story are so disgusting that I wonder how some of my friends here in Goodreads could rated this 4 or 5 stars. Burroughs knows how to tell a story, I have no issue about that. It's just that I don't find it funny when people wash their dirty too dirty it is almost unwashable lines in public. Respect others and be more tackful please. Or maybe it is my upbringing so to those you enjoyed this book, please excuse my rants.

Let's say we ignore the fact that Burroughs is a homosexual. Don't get me wrong: I am not homophobic. In fact, I have a number of gay (or just gayish) friends and we get along with one another and we can talk anything under the sun. My view in homosexuality is that, one does not need to flaunt it. If you are gay, just be gay and you don't need to tell me. Or if you choose to tell me, it is definitely a non-issue. Just like straight men. We don't flaunt that we are straight. Everything just shows. We all do and get sex but we do not go around and talk about it. Much more to write books about it with descriptions so vivid that gives one the feeling that he/she is reading a homo gay book.

In other words, get past those gay sex parts of this book and you will still find this worth reading. I am just not sure how much of this book is true: my edition still says "a memoir."
(less)

6 likes · like · see review

Mar 31, 2008 Angie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I began this book Monday night, 3/24. I almost decided to put it down, thinking, "Oh, here we go. Another memoir with witty inclusions of past pop culture, preying on my nostalgia." But then, I couldn't get over Burroughs' memory of the details from the past, such as the ticking of a cooling hair dryer or how he felt when dressed just so. And then I thought, "This guy can't be for real. He's making up details to fill the space." But I decided to keep going after his description of the dump run w...more I began this book Monday night, 3/24. I almost decided to put it down, thinking, "Oh, here we go. Another memoir with witty inclusions of past pop culture, preying on my nostalgia." But then, I couldn't get over Burroughs' memory of the details from the past, such as the ticking of a cooling hair dryer or how he felt when dressed just so. And then I thought, "This guy can't be for real. He's making up details to fill the space." But I decided to keep going after his description of the dump run with his father. Burroughs' desire for the abandoned coffee table, his description of how he would make it look nice and shiny (Windex! magazines!), and his childish wish to be flung from the car just made me keep going.

So far, so good.

***UPDATE***
3/27/08
This book has gone from weird to disturbing. I don't know what is more disturbing: the stories or Burroughs' resiliency. The idea that his mother inadvertently protected Burroughs' older brother by NOT seeking medical advice certainly seems true to me. No telling what would have happened to the brother had he been evaluated by a doctor as . . . different as Dr. Finch.

I like that we are introduced to an adult flaw in the pre-teen Augusten: his treatment of Bookman. It's disturbing, and his failure to see the danger in his behavior is alarming. His exposure to his parents' fighting and Dr. F's encouragement of expressions of anger to the extreme, seem to have desensitized Augusten to the power of anger and the effect words can have on people.

I wonder where this Bookman thing is going. I'll be glad when he's out of the story.

***UPDATE***
3/31/2008
Burroughs' unapologetic, naked memoir confounds my own sense of privacy. I don't understand how someone can be so open about his history. He's writing from outside, as if he is his own character. He's become his own patient.

I do envy Burroughs' need to write. I think really great writers feel as if they cannot or are not living unless they are writing. I've never felt that way.

I like the book, overall. I can't read Dry right now, however. I need a break. Imagine how Burroughs feels.(less)

10 likes · like · see review

Aug 22, 2007 Paula rated it 1 of 5 stars

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 got through 20 pages. Ma...more

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Sep 23, 2007 Laure rated it 1 of 5 stars

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 things a...more

5 likes · like · see review

Nov 01, 2007 Pixie rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: no one

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" I suppose, but I'm pretty toler...more

8 likes · like · see review

Sep 26, 2007 K. rated it 1 of 5 stars

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, DAUGHTER OF TH...more

9 likes · like · see review

Apr 15, 2010 Stephanie (Stepping out of the Page) rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: disliked, read-in-2010, mental-health, non-fiction, movies-or-tv, adult-fiction, lgbt-maintheme, title-appeal, memoirs-biographies-etc, books-i-own

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

3 likes · like · see review

Jun 11, 2008 Mindy rated it 4 of 5 stars

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

13 likes · like · see review

Apr 10, 2013 Tina Wagner rated it 4 of 5 stars

Coming-of-Age? Vielleicht. "Running with scissors" erzählt die anfangs bedrückende, später immer mehr verrückt werdende Geschichte der Jugend von Augusten.
Anfangs ist es sowohl schockierend und beklemmend, dass er in ein Haus abgeschoben wird, in dem Kakerlaken auf dem Geschirr, das nie gespült wird, rumlaufen, der jüngste der Familie in die Ecke scheißt und unter den Kindern munter mit Elektroschock-Geräten gespielt wird. Später, als er sich dann anscheinend an die Situation gewöhnt hat, wird e...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 05, 2007 Larry rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone

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.

7 likes · like · see review

Jun 30, 2008 Tina rated it 1 of 5 stars 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.

21 likes · like · see review

May 18, 2008 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

My brother's account of our childhood and life with the Finches

29 likes · like · see review

Mar 21, 2010 Leo rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sep09-apr10-book-club, own

Fascinating and funny book. I just re-read it for our March book club. I say re-read, because I read it around when it was first published, but for some reason I forgot about it. About 10 pages into the book though I suddenly remembered both reading it the first time around and watching the movie.

Is there anything to learn from Augusten Burrough's disjointed collection of essays about his childhood and teen years growing up in the household of demented psychiatrist Dr. Finch? I think so. It's so...more

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 30, 2008 Tara rated it 5 of 5 stars

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

11 likes · like · see review

Jan 30, 2009 Judy Cox rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: biographies-memoirs

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 yarn. And there...more

5 likes · like · see review

May 25, 2008 Kevin rated it 3 of 5 stars

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? Well, I gues...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? Well, I guess that would depend on how it was presented. Same case here.

Though I tend to forget names of characters once many books are through, I'm very familiar with each one here because each was there for a reason and made an impression upon me. This was probably my favorite aspect of Burroughs' writing. Most of the things that turned me off about this book had to do with the painful details of the horrifying events in Burroughs' adolescence, and a few of the characters, of course, greatly got on my nerves. I guess that's sort of the point.

Essentially, some of the real life events left a very bad taste in my mouth. Put enough of them back to back in Burroughs' signature cynical tone and that tends to take a toll on you as a reader. Though there were some chapters which were hilarious or endearing, the constant flow of awful events kept me from enjoying RWS as much as I would've liked. Still, there's no denying the book held my interest and kept me turning the pages. I also think the last few chapters were some of the best in the book, because you really see how Augusten, Natalie, and Deidre have grown as human beings.

Admittedly, I did expect Running With Scissors to be a bit funnier, based on the reviews it got. But, still, it was an interesting and addictive book. I'd recommend it to eccentric readers with strong stomachs. The preview of Dry in the back of the book makes me think I'll like that one better than this, and Andy recommended it, so I think I might give that a try next.(less)

4 likes · like · see review

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ABUSED(genre) BOOKS: Running with Scissors	2	7	Mar 16, 2013 09:33am
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About Augusten Burroughs

Augusten Burroughs born Christopher Robison, son of poet and writer Margaret Robison 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 began to write a...more Augusten Burroughs born Christopher Robison, son of poet and writer Margaret Robison 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 began to write a novel. Never outlining or consciously structuring the book, Burroughs wrote, "as fast as I could type, to keep up." Seven days later, Augusten Burroughs had written his first book. He had also stopped drinking. The book was published one year later. Burroughs remains sober to this day. And Sellevision stands as Burroughs's only published novel. It is currently in development as a feature film.

Augusten's second book was a memoir. It was also a publishing phenomenon that helped to ignite a kind of memoir fever in America and abroad. Running with Scissors was released in 2001 to virtually unanimous critical acclaim. The memoir would ultimately remain on the New York Times bestseller list for over four consecutive years, eight months of which were spent in the #1 position. The film, starring Annette Benning, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jill Clayburgh and Alec Baldwin was released in 2005.

He has since published four additional autobiographical volumes (Dry, Possible Side Effects, Magical Thinking and A Wolf at the Table), all of them bestsellers. Currently published in over thirty countries, Augusten's book readings have become massively popular events on numerous continents. He has also headlined for the most prestigious literary festivals in the world, most recently the 2008 Melbourne writer's Festival, where he and Germaine Greer delivered the keynote addresses on opening night. In addition, Burroughs speaks regularly at colleges and universities on topics ranging from alcoholism and sexual abuse to the art of authoring one's own life and humor as serious medicine.

Twice honored by Entertainment Weekly as one of 25 funniest people in America, Burroughs shocked fans and the media alike with the release of A Wolf at the Table in early 2008. The brutal, terrifying and decidedly unfunny book instantly generated a storm of publicity and controversy. Critics were deeply divided, and the book received some of the worst -and best- reviews of the author's career. The book tour for A Wolf at the Table, spanned some six months and four countries, as Augusten performed for the largest crowds of his career. A Wolf at the Table is Augusten's bestselling hardcover to date.

While critics continue to challenge the veracity of Burroughs's books, questioning everything from his alcoholism and advertising career to his earliest childhood memories, the author remains nonplussed, even philosophical. "To be a journalist with a major American newspaper or magazine, you have to have an A-list college education. And to get into that A-list college, you had to do very well in the right high school. So the chances are, you were not being fucked up the ass at age twelve by a pedophile. The facts of my life are generally questioned by extremely privileged and well-educated people who, more likely than not, learned most of what they know about life's dangerous, shocking and sometimes unbelievable underbelly from books, television and the occasional Quentin Tarrantino film. The reason my books continue to sell, despite frequently being dismissed as "unbelievable," is because the people who read my books recognize the truth that is in them. They know the scent. They have smelled it. The very details the media view with such suspicion are the same details that prove to my reader, this guy was there. I remember that, too."

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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.” — 535 people liked it

“You deserve to need me, not to have me.” — 260 people liked it

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