Rating: 
Summary: What was the point again?
Review: This often disturbing, sometimes funny book is getting rave reviews and I don't really understand why. It was ok, but not outstanding, not even especially unique for a memoir of abuse. Definitely sad, ...in some places. However, just plain embarrassing in others. Everyone has a story, some more tragic than others, and Augusten's is just one of many sad stories of growing up neglected, confused and abused in the 70's. His sense of humor seems sharp, if misplaced, which I'm sure is part of what helped him survive his ordeals. The people I've known who seem to have overcome severe childhood abuse tend to have a well honed sense of the absurd which lends to their comic awareness. They are usually both sarcastic and self deprecating. Often they are hysterically funny. And I guess Augusten is no exception aside from the fact that I didn't think he was hysterically funny. The book was sometimes interesting, but sometimes I wondered what the point was.
...
Although I wasn't impressed with the content as much as the reviewers seem to be, I did think the writing itself was well done and engaging. His portrayal of his mother was captivating. While I was amazed at his ability to remember all the obscure references she makes, I was appreciative of his ability to describe the major conflict for all time - the adoration and loathing toward a parent. He almost lovingly describes the way she would eat caulking and paint chips... he tenderly describes the frailty of the woman who obviously suffered on the brink of insanity - and then like a skilled surgeon, he cuts through the soft tissue with a razor sharpness - exposing her most neurotic moments with a raw brutality that not only shocks, but also makes me wonder exposing his mother is what the book is really all about. I am not defending the mother or anything she may have done. Augusten was abused, and she was the abuser. He was surrounded by abusers and in fact became one himself. However, writing about it, poking fun at it, doesn't make it less hideous. It certainly doesn't make it bearable or okay. I guess what I feel everyone else is missing is that while Augusten portrays himself as a victim; he also portrays himself as a smart player in what goes on around him. Survival instinct? For sure. Do I blame him? Of course not! It's just not something I would want to tell the world about - there is no revelation, no epiphany, no absolution or enlightenment for anyone in the story, including Augusten ... and so I don't find his story amazing, or very funny, which is what the critics seem to be saying about it. I wouldn't buy it, and I won't reread it. However I might read the next installment, about Augusten's foray into alcoholism, if only to see if he ever gets real in it. I guess maybe that's what I was looking for - for Augusten's reality, not a caricaturization of what happened to him.
Rating: 
Summary: Growing up is not easy
Review: Many of us think our family is strange; however Burroughs trumps most of our claims easily in his memories of growing up. The cast of characters he presents here could fill several books by many other authors, and refreshingly the author is not necessarily the sanest of them all. The book begins with Burroughs as a compulsive clean freak with obsessions about hair and clothes that help insulate him from the world around. Yet as he's thrown into the mix with Dr. Finch and his family, the walls come down and he begins to embrace, if not thrive on the chaos around him. The book is told not in a "oh pity me for what I went through" voice - rather it's more of a story over beer showing how messed up the world can be. As noted by other reviews, he sometimes does go into "Too Much Information" land, but it's not so much lurid details as just more facts to support the craziness around. This is a story of a young man who is far from perfect, but who works with what life gave him, and comes out of it strong. A very enjoyable and fascinating look into the adolescence of one man.
Rating:
Summary: a tough person
Review: I really hope Augusten Burroughs feels good about himself after all he went through and the terrible, morbid childhood he'd had. I'm glad he wrote the book hoping he'd got it out of his system and would live happily ever after. From my heart I wish him all the best.
Read the book, and put yourself in his shoes and try growing up to be a writer living a normal life.. that's the biggest challenge..
Rating:
Summary: An Unusually strange tale!!
Review: Readers, beware, and be warned. This is a horrific tale a boy who grew up in a depraved family. The book is incredibly sexually graphic, and Augusten's parents divorced and sent him to live with the mother's psychiatrist, who ran a perverse household. There he became sexually involved with an older man. This is not your typical after dinner fare.
Rating:
Summary: Disturbingly hilarious
Review: I found myself laughing hysterically at this book while simultaneously shaking my head in horror. It's the story of Burrough's life from the age of roughly 13 to 16. Burrough's lived a middle-classed life, but the people around him were gradually losing it. His mother began to have "psychotic breaks" (although it sounds like she may have had bipolar disorder) and hooked up with a bizarre psychiatrist - Dr. Finch. Soon, every aspect of their lives are touched by Dr. Finch and his equally bizarre family. At times, the events are horrifying, such as Burrough's molestation by Dr. Finch's adopted son. Remarkably, Burrough's manages to find the humor even in these situations. People are likely to compare Burrough's to another gay humorist, David Sedaris; however, Burrough's stories are far darker than those of Sedaris, although both of them write great funny stories. This book was a tremendously quick read, and I laughed out loud more than any recent book I've read. Highly recommended on that basis, but some readers are likely to be highly offended by some of the content.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much detail, thank you
Review: I chose this book because the description was very intriguing - a true story about boy who has a psycho-mother and is sent to live with her psychiatrist. Narcotics are eaten like Pez. The kids play with the old electroshock therapy machine under the stairs. There's a strange pedophile who lives in a shack out behind the house. Sounds like the ingredients for an interesting story, no? Well, I learned early on that this book has more detail than I care to read about. This would be slightly more forgivable if the characters were first developed, yet the author didn't take time to do that. Instead, he launches into descriptions that sound like they're the efforts of an amateur creative writing student. I didn't like the author's description that his mother's words all sound like they've gone through a curling iron. I don't want to read about a toddler's bobbing genitalia and how he tugs at it before he squats under the piano and defecates. I don't care to read about how the author regularly reads his morning excrement in the toilet like one would read his fortune from tea leaves. Unnecessary, unrestrained use of detail and shock, regardless of how true, dosn't necessarily make a work better. This author evidently isn't aware of this fact.
Rating: 
Summary: And you thought your family was weird...
Review: Running with Scissors is one of those rare biographies that grabs you both intellectually and emotionally. The characters are so far-off the normal scale, so exotic and erratic, that you just want to keep on turning the pages just to see what they'll do next. Augusten Burroughs shares with us his difficult and odd childhood, and does so in a way that you can't help sympathize with him. Burrough's life could never be described as normal. His mother, a failed poet, is often depressed, which often leads to long bouts of erratic behaviour. Because of that, she divorces her husband and then decides that she can no longer take care of her son. She 'gives' him to her psychologist, Dr. Finch, a strange, santa claus-looking fellow who eventually becomes Burrough's legal guardian. Augusten moves in with the Finch family. Here, he encounters Hope, a woman nearing thirty who has a heart of gold but who's character is very, very strange. There is Agnes, on of the doctor's many wives, who cleans the house at midnight and eats kibbles and bits as a snack. He meets Neil, who enventually becomes his lover. And finally, he meets Natalie, a girl only a year older than him who will soon become his one and only true friend. While Augusten tries to cope with the strange behavior in the Finch household, and while he tries to cope with his own sexual identity crisis, Agusten has to deal with his mother's psychological problems. By the time he's fifteen, Augusten has seen more, done more and experienced more than most fourty year olds. But Burroughs never seems sorry for what he's been through. There is a humorous tone that runs through the book that makes the reading of these heavy stories more touching and likeable. Running with Scissors is a book that you won't be able to stop reading, but that will stay in your mind for a long time. These are memorable, if extremely strange and peculiar characters you won't soon forget. A sweet coming-of-age tale, and a very strange tale of abuse is what you will find in Running with Scissors.
Rating:
Summary: Twisted and True
Review: I loved this book. It made me laugh out loud and I had to keep reminding myself that these people are real. I loved Burroughs' writing style and you can see how he survived the insanity of the people who raised him by seeing the humour in the situation he was in. He was a true survivor who did his best to scab together a family with what he had available at the time. It was difficult not to feel horribly sad for Augusten's lost youth but if he doesn't feel sorry for himself, so why should I? I enjoyed this book for the honest and haunting portrayal of a life I could never have dreamed of.
Rating:
Summary: Had its moments
Review: I opened this book with anticipation after reading so many positive reviews but did not find the humor in it. The incidents were portrayed in a humorous fashion but I found them too sad and horrific to be funny. As a memoir of a crazy childhood it fell below books like the Liars Club or A Monk Swimming, which I really enjoyed. I felt too sad for the author to reallly enjoy reading the book though it was well written and he obviously lived through the experience since he is now an adult. I did read the book all the way through, which I seldom do now....
Rating:
Summary: Disturbing yet Addictive
Review: This biography is unlike any book I've read before. Its contents are disturbing yet addictive. I had trouble putting it down, even when I was worried that the lady sitting next to me on the airplane might catch a few phrases of what I was reading.
I've heard others say this book is tragic but hilarious, yet I don't recall laughing once while reading it. I do recall feeling sorry and embarrassed for Burroughs. Unlike Sedaris's style of writing, Burroughs does not seem to follow chronological order. His statements are harsh and often times written without feeling, which could very well have been intentional. Otherwise this book might be impossible to finish.
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