Running with Scissors, Augusten Burroughs
Running with Scissors, Augusten Burroughs
29 Rating(s)
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Running with Scissors
A Memoir

Author: Augusten Burroughs

Narrator: Augusten Burroughs

Abridged: 4 hr 59 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/05/2006


Synopsis

The #1 New York Times bestselling memoir from Augusten Burroughs, Running with Scissors, now a Major Motion Picture!

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....

Running with Scissors is at turns foul and harrowing, compelling and maniacally funny. But above all, it chronicles an ordinary boy's survival under the most extraordinary circumstances.

About Augusten Burroughs

Augusten Burroughs is the author of Running with Scissors, Dry, Magical Thinking: True Stories, Possible Side Effects, A Wolf at the Table and You Better Not Cry. He is also the author of the novel Sellevision, which has been optioned for film. The film version of Running with Scissors, directed by Ryan Murphy and produced by Brad Pitt, was released in October 2006 and starred Joseph Cross, Brian Cox, Annette Bening (nominated for a Golden Globe for her role), Alec Baldwin and Evan Rachel Wood. Augusten's writing has appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers around the world including The New York Times and New York Magazine. In 2005 Entertainment Weekly named him one of "The 25 Funniest People in America." He resides in New York City and Western Massachusetts.


Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Beth on 2007-06-08 19:34:04

This was a quirky, dark book. Very readable and definately made me feel wholesome and mainstream.

AudiobooksNow review by MIRANDA on 2008-01-27 18:41:38

I laughed out loud many times while reading this book. It was witty and insightful and I'll definitely read it again.

AudiobooksNow review by Nicole on 2008-08-17 04:44:47

Worth reading. You find yourself saying NO WAY, but yes way.

AudiobooksNow review by Dustine on 2012-06-05 19:08:08

My adult daughter recommended Burroughs books so highly I was looking forward to listening to this one. But, oh my! I could barely listen to the first disc before packaging it up and sending it back. And had I read the other reviews here, hundreds of times better written than my own, I would not have wasted my time on this at all. I am SO glad I stopped with the first disc. There are thousands of books more worthy of my time including those on anything relating to geology, Africa or anything as removed from fractured psychology as possible.

Goodreads review by Oriana on January 19, 2020

I talk about this all the time, so here, definitively, is my explanation of the four categories of memoir. 1) People who have had seriously interesting / crazy lives, and who also happen to be terrific writers, able to render their stories in a compelling, original way (like David Small's brilliant......more

Goodreads review by Scott on June 20, 2008

She wasn't "Let's paint the kitchen red" crazy. She was full on head in the oven, toothpaste sandwich, I am God crazy.. paraphrased, but you get it........more

Goodreads review by Will on July 26, 2023

Burroughs offers a book that is supposedly a memoir. If so, then truth is definitely stranger than fiction. Let’s say I am skeptical. If you thought you had a tough adolescence a look at Burroughs’ tale will put your experience into a little perspective. He grew up in western Massachusetts to a mothe......more

Goodreads review by Fabian on August 16, 2020

I read this book in about four hours. & perhaps that's as good an encapsulation for the experience as I can give. I like the eccentric, non-plot-driven memoir that sounds too strange to be true... and because it exists, because it ACTUALLY happened (unlike you, James Frey!!), it merits thoughts about......more

Goodreads review by Will on July 06, 2008

It has been said that Truman Capote's last book, "Answered Prayers," cost him the friendship of almost everyone he knew at that time in his life, and it has even been speculated that this contributed to his demise. He had mined the personal secrets and character flaws of those around him for literar......more


Awards

  • Book Sense Book of the Year Award - Nominee