Outrageous, funny, sad, and true

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS is a true story, which in of itself, is very hard to believe! But true it is. Augusten Burroughs weaves a story of his life that has the reader in constant amazement, bewilderment, disbelief, compassion as well as in wonderment, in that he actually survived living the bizarre life that he had. Burrough's life makes your "average dysfunctional American family" look sane.

I loved every minute of this book and wanted to read more when I was finished. Thank goodness I also picked up his next book, DRY, at the library as well! The author looks at his bizarre, bewildering life though humor, clarity, and honesty, and paints a picture for the reader that brings all the insanity to life - in full color. One does not know whether to laugh or cry or do both. The readers also have to keep reminding themselves that this is all true!

Burroughs is a very talented author and I am enjoying DRY as much as I did with SCISSORS. This book will paint a very unique picture for the field of psychiatry!!!!! Really makes you wonder or makes you really beware!! This book shows a different, (yet real), side of life that makes one appreciate what one has in one's life, as well as thanking the heavens that one did not have to endure what Burroughs did.

This book is excellent and I am recommending it to everyone I know. I do so look forward to all of Burroughs books. Thanks Augusten Burroughs for sharing your life with us - your look back sheds the humorous and not so humorous light on all of it.

I loved this book!!! Highly recommend it.

Weird, disturbing, and funny.

'Running With Scissors' is weird, funny, touching, and grotesque. A memoir that reads like fiction (much like a John Irving novel), 'Running With Scissors' tells the twisted coming of age story of Augusten Burroughs., a teenage boy struggling to survive in the strange surrounding he calls home.

Forcing his abusive father out, Augusten is left to live with his mother, a beatnik poet on the verge of a breakdown. Seeking psychiatric help, Augusten's mother begins seeing Dr. Finch, an unorthodox psychiatrist who bears a resemblance to Santa Claus. Dr. Finch has problems of his own...he has an extremely bizarre family, as well as a pedophile who resides in his backyard shed.

Thinking things could not get any worse, Augusten gets the shock of his life when he finds out his mother is signing over his guardianship to Dr. Finch.

Augusten Burroughs lived a wild, and strange life, one that could be the script of a John Waters film. He has experienced tragedy, horror, repulsion, and ultimately redemption in his, often hilarious, journey of self discovery and adulthood.

'Running With Scissors' is unlike any other memoir you have ever read, or will read, and while it's NOT for everyone, those that are brave enough to read it will surely never forget it.

Nick Gonnella

Wonderful Memoir

<br /><br />This is one of the best Memoir/Autobiographies I have read. Fits in with other memoirs I have read such as NIGHTMARES ECHO and DRY. The interior is filled with emotional ups and downs. There is tears and laughter. The look inside the self as to why someone does the things they do. to be brought up in an-for lack of a better word-Eccentric life is at times abusive and yet this author finds humor in his own unhappiness. Great memoirs that each tell a story. <br />