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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 meds and fooling around with both an old electroshock machine and a pedophile 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 glamorizes it: planning a "beauty empire" and performing an a capella version of "You Light Up My Life" at a local mental ward. Burroughs's 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's survivor mentality will guide him through and that the coffee table will be salvaged after all. --John Moe
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
"Bookman gave me attention. We would go for long walks and talk about all sorts of things. Like how awful the nuns were in his Catholic school when he was a kid and how you have to roll your lips over your teeth when you give a blowjob," writes Burroughs (Sellevision) about his affair, at age 13, with the 33-year-old son of his mother's psychiatrist. That his mother sent him to live with her shrink (who felt that the affair was good therapy for Burroughs) shows that this is not just another 1980s coming-of-age story. The son of a poet with a "wild mental imbalance" and a professor with a "pitch-black dark side," Burroughs is sent to live with Dr. Finch when his parents separate and his mother comes out as a lesbian. While life in the Finch household is often overwhelming (the doctor talks about masturbating to photos of Golda Meir while his wife rages about his adulterous behavior), Burroughs learns "your life [is] your own and no adult should be allowed to shape it for you." There are wonderful moments of paradoxical humor Burroughs, who accepts his homosexuality as a teen, rejects the squeaky-clean pop icon Anita Bryant because she was "tacky and classless" as well as some horrifying moments, as when one of Finch's daughters has a semi-breakdown and thinks that her cat has come back from the dead. Beautifully written with a finely tuned sense of style and wit the occasional clich‚ ("Life would be fabric-softener, tuna-salad-on-white, PTA-meeting normal") stands out anomalously this memoir of a nightmarish youth is both compulsively entertaining and tremendously provocative.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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MY MOTHER IS STANDING IN FRONT OF THE BATHROOM MIRror smelling polished and ready; like Jean Nate, Dippity Do and the waxy sweetness of lipstick. Read the first page
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MY MOTHER IS STANDING IN FRONT OF THE BATHROOM MIRror smelling polished and ready; like Jean Nate, Dippity Do and the waxy sweetness of lipstick. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty good, if you like cutting edge books,
By A.A. (The A person) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Running with Scissors: A Memoir (Mass Market Paperback)
RUNNING WITH SCISSORS IS NOW A MOVIE. I had heard a great deal about this book and was eager to tackle it. That, and the fact that it had a great cover. People DO judge a book by its cover, you know. At any rate, I dove right in. Nothing could have prepared me for what came next, and next, and next. I was riveted to every page. About my only complaint is that the writing style could have been a little more, oh, up to snuff, but the story itself is fantastic. I was reminded at times of the writing of Bukowski as in his POST OFFICE, or possibly the creativeness and humor of some other books, such as McCrae's KATZENJAMMER or the hilarious and ever-popular ME TALK PRETTY by David Sedaris. Still, this book is in a class by itself. RUNNING WITH SCISSORS begins with a scene in which seven-year-old Augusten watches as his mother, an insane housewife dedicated to writing confessional poetry, gets ready for a reading. Augusten helps by handing her a box of maxi-pads to use as shoulder pads. This is just the beginning of a story that gets weirder and weirder as Augusten's mother goes crazy and gives him away to her psychiatrist Dr. Finch, whose house is filled with free Valium, an old electroshock machine, and a thirty-something-year-old pedophile. The story is kept fresh and interesting by Burroughs' pervasive use of description and details most people wouldn't notice, like the fact that the Finches' ceiling "wasn't smooth...it was bumpy, like the backs of a woman's legs. The ceiling had cellulite." Another example of Burroughs' use of detail is his description of his mother's insanity, in which he specifies that she is "not crazy is a let's paint the kitchen bright red! sort of way. But crazy in a gas stove, toothpaste sandwich, I am God sort of way," and that her eyes "scared [him]. They looked radioactive." If you've read this book and liked it (then you know what I'm talking about), I strongly suggest you try the follow-up, which, in my opinion is much better written but equally as thought-provoking-DRY. Also recommend the novel MIDDLESEX for something REALLY different.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Odd but good,
By Horace Killweather (Greater Lake Washington) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Running with Scissors: A Memoir (Mass Market Paperback)
Our book club is known for picking a little of this, a little of that. But recently we seemed to have a theme going. We picked three books ("Lullaby" by Palahniuk, "Katzenjammer" by McCrae), and finally "Running With Scissors by Burroughs. All three were in the category "out there" but we enjoyed each and everyone. My only complaint with Running was that some of the "themes" didn't seem to so anywhere. I would have liked to seee the electroshock machine actually shock someone, and one of the the wackos who lived upstairs was one of the more memorable characters; yet she never really developed into the story line. Still, I imagine that most have seen the movie now and are buying the book for this reason. It was an interesting read and if you like something really new and edgy, this would be the book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating read,
By Michael (NC) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Running with Scissors: A Memoir (Paperback)
I had difficulties putting this book down simply because I was too good to be set aside. It is a unique and quite as bizarre story. Nevertheless, I consider this book to be memorable, highly disturbing, touching, fascinating and quite very funny. However, for mild, strong or weak stomachs who love good reads, I recommend THE USURPER AND OTHER STORIES. I recommend it to those with strong stomachs.
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