Name: Running with Scissors
ISBN: 9780312938857

Augusten Burroughs

A Memoir

Running with Scissors

The #1 New York Times Bestseller An Entertainment Weekly Top Ten Book of the Year Now a Major Motion Picture Running with Scissors is 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 pedophile who resided in the backyard shed. The story of an outlaw childhood where rules were unheard of, and the Christmas tree stayed up all year round, where Valium was consumed like candy, and if things got dull an electroshock- therapy machine could provide entertainment. The funny, harrowing and bestselling account of an ordinary boy's survival under the most extraordinary circumstances. Running with Scissors Acknowledgments Gratitude doesn't begin to describe it: Jennifer Enderlin, Christopher Schelling, John Murphy, Gregg Sullivan, Kim Cardascia, Michael Storrings, and everyone at St. Martin's Press. Thank you: Lawrence David, Suzanne Finnamore, Robert Rodi, Bret Easton Ellis, Jon Pepoon, Lee Lodes, Jeff Soares, Kevin Weidenbacher, Lynda Pearson, Lona Walburn, Lori Greenburg, John DePretis, and Sheila Cobb. I would also like to express my appreciation to my mother and father for, no matter how inadvertently, giving me such a memorable childhood. Additionally, I would like to thank the real-life members of the family portrayed in this book for taking me into their home and accepting me as one of their own. I recognize that their memories of the events described in this book are different than my own. They are each fine, decent, and hard-working people. The book was not intended to hurt the family. Both my publisher and I regret any unintentional harm resulting from the publishing and marketing of Running with Scissors. Most of all, I would like to thank my brother for demonstrating, by example, the importance of being wholly unique.

Patrick Book

There's no way even half of this is true, I'm sure, but pretty intriguing/entertaining anyway.

The #1 New York Times Bestseller An Entertainment Weekly Top Ten Book of the Year Now a Major Motion Picture This is the true story of a boy who wanted to grow up with the Brady Bunch, but ended up living with the Addams Family. Augusten Burroughs's mother gave him away to be raised by her psychiatrist, a dead ringer for Santa Claus and a certifiable lunatic into the bargain. The doctor's bizarre family, a few patients and a sinister man living in the garden shed completed the tableau. In the perfect squalor of their dilapidated Victorian house, there were no rules and there was no school. The Christmas tree stayed up until summer and Valium was chomped down like sweets. And when things got a bit slow, there was always the ancient electroshock therapy machine under the stairs... 'This is the Brady Bunch on Viagra... it is impossible not to laugh at all the jokes; to admire the sardonic, fetid tone; to wonder, slack-jawed and agog, at the sheer looniness of the vista he conjures up' -- Rachel Cooke, Observer

Now a Major Motion Picture

Running With Scissors

Haylie

loved it! the movie was enjoyable as well (:

Nicole Dykeman

This was difficult to read, and certainly not for everyone, but I could not put it down.

jess

I did find this book fascinating in a grotesque sort of way; there was a lot of brutality around Burroughs' teenage life that was difficult to read about at times, but I couldn't stop.

Tasha Dykstra

I didn't see the movie but the book is incredible; I recommend reading everything by this author and his brother.

Hannah Derzanovich

I like memoirs that really paint relationships in a way I can relate to, no matter how foreign they might be to me... this story didn't really do that. At all. I felt like I was reading fiction.

Sophie Shrimpton

DNF at 60%.

This was torturous. I do not have the patience to push through, and there seems to be no good reason to. Literally just trauma porn, “look-how-crazy-my-f*cked-up-childhood-was” nonsense with no purpose. And they take ‘bible dips’ seriously. 

Audiobook ‘read’.

Running with Scissors A Memoir

Reviews