Ratings106
Average rating3.6
OK, so, I understand that this is memoir and that, it may have events that could possibly be disturbing. In fact some events were very weird and put me off, but i lost it when the ‘turd' thing happened because...dear heavens, i do not want to imagine that scene and now i feel like i'll close my eyes and it will be there. Just so fucking weird.
But, i liked the book in the start. I related to some things, some words mentioned
2 stars.
This was a re-read. Upon recommending a friend give Burroughs's Dry a read I decided to give myself a mini-retrospective of his work. Running with Scissors is kind of a classic in the comic trauma memoir genre at this point, it would seem. It's still a great read, full of voice and vivid descriptions of settings and interior life. Forgot how brutal some of the content was.
I remember reading this book when it first came out; I hated it. Since then, I've read Dry and Magical Thinking by the same author and I seem to have completely changed my feelings about Burroughs. I have renewed sympathy for him, the byproduct of negligent parents, our consumer-driven society, a frighteningly destructive psychiatrist, and a pedophile.
I was so taken with the book, in fact, that I received it today and read it all in one sitting.
My god. This book was sitting on my bookshelf for over a year and I finally decided to take a chance and read the book. It is one of the funniest stories ever written, and because it is a memoir, its much harder to believe that all these crazy things happened to one person.
The story follows Augusten Burroughs growing up gay, with a mentally ill mother, her psychotic shrink and his anything but normal family in Massachusetts. He fakes a suicide attempt to get out of school, has a sexual relationship with a man 20 years older than him by the time he was 13, smokes pot, drinks alcohol, studies feces positions and other oddities that people don't usually do on a day to day basis.
Of course I believe some things must have been exaggerated. It is impossible to realize that ALL of the events happened exactly the same way he creatively writes them in. But I couldnt put the book down much during my christmas break, and I think everyone would enjoy this story and wish for more.
At times both funny and disturbing, this was a very interesting memoir showing the good and bad in human relationships.
2.5
Unfortunately, the audiobook that I checked out had a faulty disk, so I missed about three chapters (20, 21, and 22), but I still felt that the ending fizzled a little. I didn't want a bow, nor did I expect one, it just felt like he turned off the tap. The chapters were starting to feel more and more like short stories, instead of a cohesive narrative.
There were also some difficult subject matters, and some I felt were a bit over done. As a whole I enjoyed it more than I didn't. If I'm able to find it I'll view the movie as well :)
This was a very hard book for me to read. My sister recommended it to me because it was so close to our own childhood experiences. Because of that, I had to take breaks between reading chapters just to ease my mind.
I recommend this book to anyone who has grown up in a dysfunctional household if you can stomach it.