Books › Running with Scissors
Running with Scissors
A Memoir
352 pages
A hilariously horrifying plunge into a childhood where the adults are the lunatics and survival requires a razor-sharp sense of irony.
What it feels like
Reading this memoir feels like being trapped in a funhouse mirror reflection of a 1970s childhood, where the adults are entirely unhinged and the children are left to raise themselves among the wreckage. The pace is brisk, propelled by a relentless barrage of anecdotes so bizarre they border on the surreal. You will find yourself laughing out loud at situations that should, by all rights, be deeply tragic, thanks to a narrative voice that is masterfully deadpan and sharply observant. The atmosphere is squalid and chaotic, yet infused with a strange, feral freedom. It is a perfect match for readers who appreciate pitch-black comedy and find comfort in stories of surviving profound dysfunction with one's wit and sanity miraculously intact.
- Mood
- chaotic
- surreal
- squalid
- absurd
- Tone
- darkly comedic
- deadpan
- irreverent
- candid
- wry
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- childhood trauma · unconventional families · survival through humor · parental neglect · coming-of-age
- The writing
- The prose is sharp, conversational, and relentlessly deadpan, delivering horrifying details with the casualness of a grocery list.
- The arc
- The reader is dragged through a bewildering landscape of abandonment and squalor, ultimately arriving at a place of cynical, hard-won resilience.
- Who it's for
- Readers who use dark humor as a coping mechanism and devour memoirs that push the boundaries of the bizarre and taboo.
Content notes
- child abuse
- pedophilia
- parental neglect
- substance abuse
- mental illness
- statutory rape
About the book
"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.
Description from Open Library.
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