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Running with Scissors: A Memoir (Paperback)

by Augusten Burroughs (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Atlantic Books; New edition edition (12 Feb 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1843541513
  • ISBN-13: 978-1843541516
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 26,925 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #40 in  Books > Fiction > Novelists
    #77 in  Books > Biography > Novelists, Poets & Playwrights

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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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.



Review

'This true story is a match for the strangest... Running with Scissors reads like an extremely well crafted and crazed sitcom, a mix of Jerry Springer and Seinfeld... Funny, moving and extraordinary' Christina Patterson, Independent 'Twisted, hilarious and relentlessly bizarre... It single-handedly redefines the term "fucked up childhood"' Sleazenation 'Bawdy, outrageous, often hilarious... so flippant and so insanely funny' New York Times 'A story so strange, it could never be fiction... deftly written, smart and funny' GQ'Burroughs will be hard pressed ever to better this, his debut effort... It's one you'll never forget' Alice Fisher, Time Out 'Dave Pelzer with a whoopee cushion attached... Genuinely memorable' Observer TOP 50 CULTURAL EVENTS OF THE SEASON '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
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

34 Reviews
5 star:
 (19)
4 star:
 (8)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (34 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
40 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A Cut Above, 28 Feb 2003
This review is from: Running with Scissors (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.

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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars HIGHLY RECOMMENDED., 5 April 2008
By Leeds lass "The Banker" (England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
I am surprised at some of the reviews on this book. I know we all have different tastes but i found it absolutely compelling, sadder than sad, yet at the same time, funny. An unusual book with so much going on...i couldn`t put it down. My daughter thoroughly enjoyed it too. One reviewer does not believe it all happened - i wonder why..?
A book worth buying in my opinion, and definately worth reading.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A darkly, comic gem, 5 May 2006
By J. A. Turnbull "Jamie x" (uk) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars All credit to Mr Burroughs for surviving childhood!
W-o-w. I must say, I am ashamed of myself for letting this one slide down my pile of 'books to read' for so long. Read more
Published 1 month ago by E. Potten

5.0 out of 5 stars An incredible and disturbing read
I just finished reading this book a few hours ago and the only thing I could think of was 'wow'. You think your family is weird or screwed up? Think again... Read more
Published 5 months ago by A. Sophie

3.0 out of 5 stars Completely insane but interesting nonetheless
The author writes about his unusual childhood, how his mother put him in the care of the dysfunctional and quirky (crazy really) family of a psychiatrist at the start of his... Read more
Published 7 months ago by French reader

4.0 out of 5 stars Haha!
An original account of Burroughs' insane childhood. Some parts made me wonder if/how much he was was exaggerating but a hilarious read nonetheless. Highly recommended.
Published 12 months ago by Ayn Rand

5.0 out of 5 stars Not to be missed
I'd never heard of Augusten Burroughs and it was purely by chance that I picked up his book and took it on holiday with me. What a find. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Ms. N. A. De Milne

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!
In the same category as McCrae's Katzenjammer and Sedaris's Me Talk Pretty, Running With Scissors is at once frightening and thrilling. Read more
Published on 30 Oct 2007 by Can-do woman of the 90s

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, comedic account of a truly shocking childhood.
Because this book is so funny you can easily forget to be horrified by the absolutely horrendous childhood being recounted. Read more
Published on 5 Oct 2007 by H. Eaton

4.0 out of 5 stars Hilarity covering for sadness?
What a wild ride! This book definitely asks to be read straight through, if not only because you want to find out how a person can possibly make it through his childhood in... Read more
Published on 31 Jul 2007 by maya j

4.0 out of 5 stars A Cut Above The Rest
Augusten Burroughs' was twelve when his parents divorced and his mentally unstable mother gave him away to her psychiatrist. Read more
Published on 18 Feb 2007 by C. Chester

2.0 out of 5 stars Deeply unpleasant
This book left a nasty taste in my mouth.
Apart from being totally unrealistic (no, I do not believe for a moment it is a true story),I found the in depth descriptions of... Read more
Published on 30 Jan 2007 by Tamara

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