• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

Augusten Burroughs: Running with Scissors

novella

novella

Active Member
Just finished Augusten Burroughs' childhood memoir Running with Scissors, and I'm now moving on to Dry, his memoir of his twenties.

Running with Scissors is bizarre yet believable and affirms the fact that life is sometimes just like driving an obstacle course around all the weirdos and misfortunes thrown in the path. That trust is optional, growing up is difficult, and most people have almost no insight into the human condition. Burroughs being an exception to that, of course.

Hoping for the best with the next installment.
 
novella said:
Just finished Augusten Burroughs' childhood memoir Running with Scissors, and I'm now moving on to Dry, his memoir of his twenties.

Running with Scissors is bizarre yet believable and affirms the fact that life is sometimes just like driving an obstacle course around all the weirdos and misfortunes thrown in the path. That trust is optional, growing up is difficult, and most people have almost no insight into the human condition. Burroughs being an exception to that, of course.

Hoping for the best with the next installment.
Click to expand...

I just started this book tonight. I'll let you know what I think of it. On another note, I've lived in or near Amherst since I started college in 1998. It's a town FULL of weirdos. In fact, I think they have a breeding program in town.
 
I couldn't put either Running with Scissors or Dry down once I started them. I liked both, but Dry was my favorite. It actually had me tearing up a little.

I felt his memoirs were very heartfelt and not at all of the "pity me" style (which lately, I seem to be stuck reading). RwS often left me with my mouth agape and realizing that life could always be worse. Plus, no matter the struggles, he conveyed that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

I hope you enjoy Dry too.
 
I finished Dry a couple of days ago and posted to the just finished thread or somewhere. While Dry's ending had a much more powerful personal moment of revelation for the author (and he did that pretty well), I felt that the things that made him different from the rest of the world were clear in RwS, whereas Dry was more of a standard NYC-burnout story. (Sorry, but that's where I come from and I really don't like the standard come-to-NY-do-bad-things-become-human-again stuff. It's kind of tired.)

On the other hand, I really like his fluidity and acceptance and reiteration of what's happening. His books are pretty free of societal-judgment baloney, but then he interjects his childhood anecdotes in order justify his point of view.

In short (which this ain't), I think Running with Scissors is the better write and the better read, just because it appreciated conversant day-to-day insanity and made something artful out of it, instead of taking the usual route and looking for the 'normal.'
 
i loved this book..it had so much going for it...bizarreness, humour, sadness...you were almost in disbelief half the time.
 
I liked RWS a lot. It wasn't written in a way intended to may the readre pity the porr childhood of the author. It was just written as an account of what was. It was very funny, and I even managed to get my husband to pick up the book. Though he is now joking that we should have a "Masturbatorium" installed somewhere in our home just so we can watch peoples faces when we say we have one. :rolleyes:
 
I've gotten this book back, so I am just now starting (again) to read it. I've gotten just to the point where he finds out he's moving in with them. So far, I'm a bit bummed. It basically started like a ripoff of a David Sedaris book. However, I'm certain it will get better.

In response to Novella's post, the Turcotte family has brought a suit against him. I remember reading the article a month or two ago in a local paper. It was quite interesting and gives some more details about the crazy shrink. You will need to fill in your zip code and age to read the full article, but it is well worth the effort. After re-reading the article I realized I bought a book of the mother's poetry for a friend this past Christmas from a bookstore in the town she lives in.
 
I had just heard about the lawsuit on the radio I think but it may have been tv. I still have quite a few people ahead of me on the hold list at the library but after hearing about it I really don't want to wait much longer.
 
That is a bummer. I'd send you my copy when I finish, but a girl at the hospital just asked me for it tonight. If I get it back quickly I'll get in touch.
 
Well the book I'm reading now is a whopper so I guess I'll be ok till my hold comes in but thank you :)
 
Well, I'm finally through with this book. Somehow, it never lived up to my expectations. It is not entirely the book's fault, as I tend to set high expectations for books I am looking forward to.

All throughout I kept waiting for the part where it got good, the part where I didn't look at Augusten Burroughs as an egotistical jerk, yet it didn't come. The area in which Burroughs grew up is home to a lot of eccentric characters, and I know that the family described in this book was full of them. However, throughout the book I kept thinking that I could just as easily picture the author blowing their bizzarity out of proportion as I could the events described within actually happening. While reading all I could think was that by writing a best seller, this guy has finally satisfied the delisions of grandeur and self importance he has entertained for the past forty years.

His writing style is far from unique and I am still trying to decide if he honestly believes himself to be the next David Sedaris, or if that is simply how his writing comes off. The person who gave me this book told me to keep it as she didn't enjoy it and didn't want it back. It is yet another recent read that I can't fathom passing on for anyone else to suffer through. I'm now officially burned out on modern writing and will be reverting back to reading classic literature.
 
I have to agree with Mehastings, I was disappointed and wouldn't recommend the book to anyone. It was a fast and entertaining read but it felt a bit off for some reason, maybe too contrived.
 
Rws/dry

I'm glad I came to this forum. I just went out and bought both of these books today. I can't wait to read them!!
 
The movie version

Running with Scissors is one, if not my most favorite book. I found out that the movie is coming out October 11th and I cannot wait. The cast looks amazing with people liek Annette Benning and Brian Cox. It will be great seeing all the craziness played out on screen. I am so excited!!!
 
I just finished reading Running With Scissors yesterday. After allowing about 24 hours to digest it here's my take on the book.

I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it. :confused: I was waiting for something to happen that never did.

I feel completely intrigued about how anyone could say this book is their absolute favorite book. For me, it never really went anywhere, or did anything. I guess that's part of real life, but it's not exactly what I would call exciting reading. I have no desire to read anything else by Augusten Burroughs.

I won't bother to spend any money on the movie if/when it comes out. I may rent it, but that would be it. Has potential to be another "Brokeback Mountian" homosexual controversy though.

I also kept wondering, thanks to the "Million Little Pieces" scandle, how much of the story was really true, and how much was "tweaked" just a bit for dramatic effect?

Maybe the lack of a hook, or climax in the book is what a memoir of somebody who's still alive is going to have, but I must say that I closed the book and wondered exactly why I'd spent a few days reading it. The story really left me with nothing.
 
Motokid said:
For me, it never really went anywhere, or did anything...I have no desire to read anything else by Augusten Burroughs.
Click to expand...
Ug, thank god I'm not the only one. I was starting to think I'm crazy.
I also kept wondering, thanks to the "Million Little Pieces" scandle, how much of the story was really true, and how much was "tweaked" just a bit for dramatic effect?
Click to expand...
I recently went to visit a friend's mother at her camp out in the woods. She was getting ready to start this book in light of the ongoing lawsuits and the movie coming out. I told her exactly what I thought of it. She told me that she knew The Turcotte family, and confirmed that they are crazy. I mentioned some of the things in the book and she told me they seemed a bit far fetched. We didn't get too into it, but agreed to discuss again when she's had a chance to read it again.
 
Welcome, KAYDEN. :)

I haven't read this one yet. I guess I was subconsciously equating it with A Million Little Pieces too. I do have a soft spot for weirdos however, so maybe I would like this one.

I'm wandering off now to see if there's an Ann Patchett thread. I was just about to start spamming again. I think I may be getting better about that. A little, maybe.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top