Rating:  Summary: HILARIOUS Review: This book is hilarious and horrifying. If you're one of thos people who never laughs while reading in public, i challenge you to read this book.
Rating:  Summary: Running with scissors... wow Review: This is one of those books that while I was reading it... nothing in my life looked the same. It sucked me in. There are few books that do this and when I happen upon one that does I have learned to enjoy the ride... even if it's disturbing. The book tells about Augusten's childhood as he saw things... all the little conversations and beliefs that kids devise to make sense of their world are in this book. His mother is seeing a shrink and since he is a doctor Augusten has many beliefs about how a doctor would live. When he finds out the opposite and is plopped down in the surreal, strange and stinky home of Dr. Finch, he is disturbed. But what happens is very interesting... over time he adjust (as kids do) and makes the best of it. Many readers seem to be disturbed by the graphic content. Well, that's ok... the relationship that Augusten had with an adult man and was allowed to have was abusive. The book talks about the relationship as a teen-ager would see it. It's real. I applaud Augusten with sharing his freakish tales with us. Is it funny... well, in some places I guess... funny in the sense in someone falling down a flight of stairs is funny. It makes you cringe and look away but you inevitably look back.
Rating:  Summary: I wish him all the peace in the world, but... Review: ...a good writer he is not. The story is outrageous and sad and my hat's off to him for surviving (and, apparently, surviving alcoholism as per his new book), but it's just not well written. You can tell he and his editor thought his writing was witty and perhaps even funny, but it's actually quite forced and self-conscious. As another reviewer said, it reads like a trashy novel. Bummer. For a much better read in a somewhat similar vein, try "The Liar's Club."
Rating:  Summary: Awful Review: I bought this book for my husband for Christmas because the reviews were so good. I was shocked by the content and I didn't think I was that easily shocked. Both my husband and I think this book is awful. Don't buy it, I will give you our copy.
Rating:  Summary: Disappointing Review: After all of the hype I'd read about Running with Scissors, the book itself was disappointing. It's a quick read with the feeling of a trashy novel, but with no real point to the book other than for Burroughs to brag "Hey, look what my life was like - wasn't it crazy?" Burroughs doesn't spend much time exploring his own thoughts on the situations (other than to give opinions that the readers were likely to have on their own) or probing the actions of the other people in his life at the time. All in all, a very superficial treatment of a disturbingly strange period in the author's life.
Rating:  Summary: shocking Review: This book was a quick read. It was just so interesting! In the beginning, I was shocked at the daily turmoil this young boy endured, but by the end I learned to expect the unexpected. None of the situations are what most people would find funny, but the author puts a hilarious spin on everything. It is, after all, his life and this is the way he's chosen to view it. He has made a great success of such a hopeless life. I was left inspired. This book makes one realize that no matter how terrible you think your life is, there is always someone going through worse. Make no mistake, readers will be disgusted at times, but the overall story is worth the heartache. This book is a must!
Rating:  Summary: Weird, disturbing, and funny. Review: 'Running With Scissors' is weird, funny, touching, and grotesque. A memoir that reads like fiction (much like a John Irving novel), 'Running With Scissors' tells the twisted coming of age story of Augusten Burroughs., a teenage boy struggling to survive in the strange surrounding he calls home.Forcing his abusive father out, Augusten is left to live with his mother, a beatnik poet on the verge of a breakdown. Seeking psychiatric help, Augusten's mother begins seeing Dr. Finch, an unorthodox psychiatrist who bears a resemblance to Santa Claus. Dr. Finch has problems of his own...he has an extremely bizarre family, as well as a pedophile who resides in his backyard shed. Thinking things could not get any worse, Augusten gets the shock of his life when he finds out his mother is signing over his guardianship to Dr. Finch. Augusten Burroughs lived a wild, and strange life, one that could be the script of a John Waters film. He has experienced tragedy, horror, repulsion, and ultimately redemption in his, often hilarious, journey of self discovery and adulthood. 'Running With Scissors' is unlike any other memoir you have ever read, or will read, and while it's NOT for everyone, those that are brave enough to read it will surely never forget it. Nick Gonnella
Rating:  Summary: hilarious in a morbid and disturbing way Review: I don't know what else to say, except you better have quite the open mind if you want to read this (I don't know why you would be reading this if you didn't). It's got disturbing subject matter that cross the subjects of pedophilia, rape, psychological malpractice, family dysfunction/abuse, homosexuality, drug use, etc. Somehow, though, it comes together as one of the most hilarious books I think I've ever read.
Rating:  Summary: Run away from Running with Scissors Review: Disturbing, if true, and even more so if not -- who would make up this stuff? I read lots of different kinds of literature, fiction and non-fiction, and have never had to stop reading a book because it was so disturbing. Such unbelievable tales of physical, psychological, and emotional abuse of a young child...it was more than I could take. The title "Running with Scissors" makes it sound like this is somehow amusing or at least someone enjoying living dangerously. I fail to see the amusement. I certainly hope that writing this book was therapeutic for the author. It did nothing for me but cause me to give thanks for what seems more and more like a normal, reasonable childhood experience -- but then, compared to the one in the book, everyone's experience falls in the realm of "normalcy."
Rating:  Summary: An hysterical delight! Review: Someone said: "Like John Waters crossed with David Sedaris". If you think that those two only tell sad stories, then you won't enjoy this. If you are amazed at yourself laughing out loud - constantly - on the undergraound while reading a book, then grab a copy of this right away. The cell-shaking laughter that this books causes will cure most any ailment.
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