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Summary: Dysfunctional family at a new level
Review: If you think your family is dysfunctional read Augusten Burroughs memoir "Running with Scissors." It is an almost not to be believed childhood. His mother suffers from mental illness and imagines herself a great poet. His father is an alcoholic and he ends up living with his mothers psychiatrist. That family invented the word dysfunctional. Throughout all of this Burroughs survived and wrote a very entertaining book. It's not always pleasant to read and I found myself squirming at certain things that reminded me of my own family. However, it's about a young boy whose spirit is not broken by the madness around him. He also has to deal with his own sexual orientation and finds comfort in being the lover of a 33 year old man who also slips into madness and disappears. It's not for the squeamish and there are some very gross descriptions of body functions and graphic gay sex. That is a small price to pay for such an uplifiting book by a man who has survived.
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Summary: Tragic and Fun
Review: Bottom line, this book is an emotional roller-coaster. One minute you are laughing at the top and the world drops out and you rush through the horrors. When it was all done, Augusten brings you back around to a steady middle ground. Looking forward to reading "dry"
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Summary: Run into a grippingly Mad World
Review: Warped and Enthralling, Running with Scissors sucked me along--each odd event out-doing the last. The characters are so stark and richly developed that you can almost touch the hunchbacked mother, Agnes, sweeping absently around the 7 month old christmas tree. So many great quotes from that book, so many moments that make you want to yell--beware of reading it in public, or you may be locked away yourself!
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Summary: when you finish this book , you wish you hadn't read it.
Review: Burroughs is a fine writer and i feel for the guy. but, gotta say it: the book's disturbing, and not in a good way. the autobiographical material he had to work with is so... sick. unless you are a reader who has grown up in a similarly drug-oriented, sex-focused environment where mental health is in short supply, w-a-a-y too much disclosure. most telling is the epilogue, in which Burroughs goes thru a where-are-they-now with all the main characters. some are dead, some are disabled, only one or two seem to be at all functional. this book makes you wish Burroughs all the best in his life because he's already experienced a sort of hell.
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Summary: Interesting, funny, and a bit too explicit
Review: This book keeps its momentum from the first page to the last. The author is able to engage the reader throughout. Before buying this book, however, one should be aware of specific content that is not eluded to on the cover. There are several sexually explicit and possibly highly offensive passages in this book. The author goes into so much detail about his homosexual encounters that the book should be rated "x". This book is certainly not suitable for all readers.
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Summary: Not For the Sensitive People
Review: Running with Scissors was a funny book only because you know that the author managed to survive his childhood. If you're the sensitive type, I wouldn't recommend this book. If you're a reader who had a similarly "twisted" childhood and have come away from it with a sense of humor, then this book is for you.
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Summary: spell check, Augusten, spell check!
Review: Am I the only one who has noticed that Augusten spells Donny Osmond wrong (it's not Donnie) and Golda Mier wrong (it's not Meier) throughout the book? I hope the editors clean that up in future editions. Other than that...a fun read.
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Summary: Running With Scissors: A Memoir
Review: This was not a good book, and I do not see how anyone could find humor in it. The author started well by discussing how his Mom dressed from the point of view of a child, he had a good grasp of detail, but it deteriorated fast. His life has been horrific, but although he keeps repeating that he he was "coping", he, in fact, reveled and actively participated in the life of squalor, drug abuse, insanity, animal abuse, alcohol abuse, professional incompentency, sexual predition, meanness, and much more. The last half of the book is just more of the same, and I would have had much more respect for the author if he had kept his own value system, within the frame work of that family, instead of going along for the ride. Just as you can say where were the authorities, the neighbors, social services, you can also ask where was the boy who found cleanliness and pressed clothes, more attractive than ripping holes in walls? What was the intent of the book, to exonerate him from his own deeds in the framework of blaming his predators? In exposing them, he exposed himself. I aso wished that the advertisers gave some indication of the extent of graphic descriptions of homosexual activity in the book, that would have prevented me from wasting my money and my time.
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Summary: Breezy Muddle
Review: I was drawn to this book because of the ecstatic reviews it received, but after reading it I'm baffled as to why people found it so engaging. The book is being marketed as a survivor's story, but the protagonist is so passive that he can hardly be considered a heroic figure. He doesn't triumph; indeed, he initiates no action on his own behalf. That passivity is true not only of the protagonist, but also of the writer. (And no, they are not one and the same; the writer is an adult, trying - but not succeeding - to write as if he were a teen). He can be witty, but also very, very lazy; he expects the mere recitation of incidents to create an emotional impact. More often than not, they don't. For instance, at the age of 14 the narrator becomes sexually involved with a man 20 years his senior. Is the reader supposed to be shocked by this? Perhaps, perhaps not. We are not given enough information to determine if he was sexually precocious (a la Amy Fisher) and thus welcomed the jump-start to his sexuality, or if he feels he was raped and violated and thus damaged for life. He doesn't approach the sexual encounters with excitement or disgust; annoyance is the only adjective that comes close to describing his attitude. What does it mean? Well, since the narrator does not change after his sexual awakening, one is tempted to conclude that the experience had no impact - but if it didn't, then why write about it? The same problems can be found with the descriptions of his mother's psychosis; the narrator merely views her psychotic episodes as occasions for one-liners. One would hope for more of an emotional impact. The book is a remarkably fast read, which is a blessing with this type of material. The writing style is very stilted - Burroughs is not very adept at writing from a teen's perspective in the way of, say, Sue Townsend or even Salinger. Instead, we get an adult trying to sound like a child, and it's just not convincing. With the exception of Dr. Finch, the supporting characters are so poorly drawn as to be all but indistinguishable (indeed, I'm still not sure how many kids were in the Finch family). If you're looking for a book that combines the self-conscious quirkiness of John Irving, the vacuous sexuality of E. Lynn Harris and the emotional aloofness of Bret Easton Ellis, you might enjoy "Running with Scissors." But if you're looking for a book with fully drawn characters, meaningful action and some sort of resolution, keep looking.
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Summary: Shock Therapy for Dummies
Review: Augusten Burroughs is a gay adolescent journal writer who dreams of becoming a star (or at least a hairdresser).
His mother, Deirdre is an obsessive poet, who goes insane on a regular basis (and who also happens to be a lesbian).
His father is an alcoholic suffering from depression, who constantly threatens to kill her.
Dr. Finch has a room for masturbating between and after clients (The Masturbatorium), several mistresses he refers to as his wives, brings patients to live in his house, aids Augusten by helping him stage a fake suicide (by giving him Valium and booze)so he can get out of going to school, and believes he can receive answers from God through his bowels.
Agnes, a hunchback, is only Dr. Finch's legal wife, who also happens to be Catholic and deals with stress by sweeping the house from top to bottom. Her favorite snack is dog food.
Hope, who is almost 30, still lives at home and helps her father (Dr. Finch) out at work. You would think she is fairly normal, that is until she is convinced their cat, Freud, is dying and she takes him down to the basement, puts him in a laundry basket, covers the top, and eventually he does die (from starvation).
Vickie (an adolescent daughter) who went to live and travel around with hippies.
Natalie (another adolescent daughter) was dating someone at least twice her age, who also happened to be one of her father's clients and who also adopted her (but she left after he started to beat her). She is Augusten's closest friend.
Neil Bookman (the adopted son), also a client of Dr. Finch and a pedophile, forms an attachment to Augusten (even though he is 20 years older). They end up dating and exploring gay love. One day, he simply disappears.
Fern Stewart, a minister's wife, who seemingly has the most perfect family, is Deirdre's first lover. This comes as quite a shock to Augusten.
Dorothy, an eighteen year old African American, and another patient of Dr. Finch, ends up dating Deirdre and they move in together. Did I mention that she's suicidal?
Father Kimmel is a priest who keeps porn stashed in his desk and gives money from the tithing basket for Augusten and Natalie to go out to a movie.
Oh yea, and a dog named Zoo.
This book is absolutely outrageous and I can definitely see the resemblance with John Waters films, you will laugh out loud.
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