- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Atlantic Books; First Edition edition (4 Feb 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1843541505
- ISBN-13: 978-1843541509
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 285,256 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Running With Scissors
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
There is a passage early in Augusten Burroughs's harrowing and highly entertaining memoir Running with Scissors that speaks volumes about the author. While going to the garbage dump with his father, young Augusten spots a chipped glass-top coffee table that he longs to bring home. "I knew I could hide the chip by fanning a display of magazines on the surface, like in a doctor's office," he writes, "And it certainly wouldn't be dirty after I polished it with Windex for three hours."
There were certainly numerous chips in the childhood Burroughs describes: an alcoholic father, an unstable mother who gives him up for adoption to her therapist and an adolescence spent as part of the therapist's eccentric extended family, gobbling prescription medicines and fooling around with both an old electroshock machine and a paedophile who lives in a shed out back. But just as he dreamed of doing with that old table, Burroughs employs a vigorous program of decoration and fervent polishing to a life that many would have simply thrown in a landfill. Despite her abandonment, he never gives up on his increasingly unbalanced mother. And rather than despair about his lot, he glamorises it: planning a "beauty empire" and performing an a cappella version of "You Light Up My Life" at a local mental ward.
Burroughs' perspective achieves a crucial balance for a memoir: emotional but not self-involved, observant but not clinical, funny but not deliberately comic. And it's ultimately a feel-good story: as he steers through a challenging childhood, there's always a sense that Burroughs' survivor mentality will guide him through and that the coffee table will be salvaged after all. --John Moe, Amazon.com
San Francisco Chronicle
'[Running with Scissors makes] even the most outrageous episode of the ‘Jerry Springer Show’ seem rational by comparison.'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
46 of 47 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Ths book was recommended to me by a friend in America and I snapped it up as soon as it became available over here. My friend said I wouldn't be able to put it down. She was right. I read the entire thing in one sitting.
The story recounts five years in the life of Augusten Burroughs. His mother, being crazy, gives up her son into the care of her psychiatrist, and life for 12 year old Augusten just gets even crazier. The book reads as though it is a comedy and, trust me, you will find yourself laughing out loud on several occasions, but there is nothing comedic about the contents of the book. Some of the events are so shocking they seem slightly unbelievable and just when you think things couldn't get any worse, Burroughs throws something even more terrible at you, and you are left reeling from the impact.
You have to keep reminding yourself that this is a memoir, that these things did really happen to this little boy. Burroughs lived through this and the fact that he has produced such a stunning memoir, and indeed written it with such humour, is truly remarkable.
I would advise everyone who has ever read a book to read this one. It may never win literary acclaim, but Running With Scissors is an amazing read. I never thought it was possible to feel both repulsion and warmth at the same time, but Burroughs has shown me how it is done. Then again, through Running With Scissors, Burroughs has opened my eyes to a lot of things.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this book after reading an extract from it in a magazine and nothing could have prepared me for what I found. The book is a dark and disturbing memoir of a boy who is "raised" by the crazy family of his mother's psychiatrist. But don't be fooled, this is no navel-gazing, weighty tear-jerker; Burroughs writes candidly and with a dark humour and never encourages the reader to feel sorry for him or judge the bizarre parade of characters that pass through.
I'm sure this book won't appeal to everyone and if you're looking for a probing, 'hankies at the ready' story of a scarred childhood, then this isn't for you; however, if you want a fascinating, darkly comic book that explores the seedier side of growing up, then this is an excellent choice.
I'm sure this book won't appeal to everyone and if you're looking for a probing, 'hankies at the ready' story of a scarred childhood, then this isn't for you; however, if you want a fascinating, darkly comic book that explores the seedier side of growing up, then this is an excellent choice.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Not only does Mr. Burroughs detail a difficult life but he does so with honesty and clarity. This is the type of book that you will read again and share with friends. A few others in this category that stand out in my mind are Nightmares Echo and Behind Closed Doors, equally impressive.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Challenging read
My first time with this writer on a recommendation. Well written and spiked with black humour. But I didn't always feel comfortable with attempts to create one shock upon another... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Lullaboo
Definitely different
This book was extremely strange, from start to finish. I can't honestly believe that this was a memoir as it doesn't seem realistic. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Stepping Out of the Page
running with scissoers
really really love this book i would recomend everyone to read it, very good book. it one of these books u want to read again s defo worth buying insted on geeting from the libery
Published 9 months ago by billy
So unbelievable it must be true
A quirky tale so totally unbelievable it must be true. A bizzare cast of characters many of them from one wholly dyfunctional family the most dysfunctional being the father who is... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mr. R. Little
Bizarre.com!
I read this book in one sitting, it was utterly compelling. This is unlike any other memoir I have ever read before. What a childhood, BEDLAM is an understatement! Read more
Published 12 months ago by L. Flitton
amazing
what can i say? i LOVE this book. it is without doubt one of my favourite books. when i need something to read i always go back to it. very enjoyable.
Published 15 months ago by dott
A Favourite
Augusten's memoir is a book like no other I've read. It has a bizarre, sitcom-like quality to it, that leaves you unable to convince yourself it is actually true. Read more
Published 19 months ago by V. Gregory
Harrowing and humorous
The amazing thing about Augusten Burroughs is that after a childhood spent amongst the most dysfunctional adults it is possible to imagine (first his mother and then her even odder... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Clive A. H. Still
Review of Running with Scissors
Hilarious and weird book - I couldn't believe it was a true story when I found out. It's one of those books that you sometimes don't want to read on the tube incase someone looks... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Rachel
Very funny book
Running with Scissors is the first set of memoirs by Augusten Burroughs, charting his childhood from the ages of eleven to seventeen. Read more
Published 21 months ago by rhysthomashello
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