Running with Scissors - Supernormal Reads

Paperback, 320 pages

Published 2006 by Atlantic Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-84354-485-2

(1 review)

"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 psychiatrist, a dead ringer for Santa and a lunatic in the bargain. Suddenly, at age twelve, Augusten Burroughs found himself living in a dilapidated Victorian in perfect squalor. The doctor's bizarre family, a few patients, and a pedophile living in the backyard shed completed the tableau. Here, there were no rules; there was no school.

The Christmas tree stayed up until summer, and Valium was eaten like Pez. And when things got dull, there was always the vintage electroshock-therapy machine under the stairs..."--BOOK JACKET.

17 editions

ralentina reviewed Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

The relative value of shocking life accounts

3 stars

An (allegedly inaccurate) memoir about the author's broken childhood.The advantage of reading hyped-up books 15 years after they come out is that the hype is gone - usually turned into nasty (envy-fed?) criticism. I was warned that the author seems to have made up a lot of things. It didn't bother me particularly: I am not charmed by 'look-how-messed-up-I-am' narratives, but what brought the book to life where the disturbing details, and the well-rounded, oh-so-disturbing characters. If he made either of those up, hats off to him.