This book is one of the most profoundly disturbing books that I have ever read in my entire life. I started the memoir expecting it to be "hilarious" and "screamingly funny" as the reviews promised. Instead, I was left cringing throughout the book with every description of the madness of the people around him, the disgusting sexual interactions that the author, as a child, had with an adult, and the horrific squalor in which the author and his fellow characters lived.
People defecating the carpet, eating dogfood, analyzing their own excrement for signs from God, and tolerating the sexual and mental abuse of a child are just a few examples of the absolute insanity presented in this book. I am not sure how anyone found this book to be "ridiculously funny" and an "entertaining trip." I found it to be a tortuous journey into the darkness of an entire depraved family of pedophiles, quacks, and figurative Neanderthals.
I do not know how much of this book is actually non-fiction, but I sincerely hope that every vomit-inducing word of it was derived purely from the imagination of the author rather than the reality of his childhood. I would not recommend this book to my worst enemy. That being said, if this is a true story, it is the not the fault of the author that the story is so horrible. The prose is excellent, and the memoir is a very quick read. Occasionally the presentation style suggested a hint of humor, but each spark of light-heartedness is quickly doused by more terrible descriptions of something disgusting. Save yourself. Do not read this book.

Easily one of the best books I've ever read.

If you plan on reading this, ignore the bad reviews, some people just don't get that life can be dark at times. Life isn't all rainbows and fucking lucky charms you fucking idiots.

I *think* I first read this in print in 2007. I didn't write a review originally because it was prior to joining Goodreads, but I loved it. I'll always credit Augusten for getting me into memoirs, one of my favorite genres.

I enjoyed this audiobook reread, but after now listening to two of his narrations, I can say I'm not a great fan when he does the voices of other folks. He's great as himself, but he sounds ridiculous as - for example - Dr. Finch, like a mall Santa Claus or something. But, I still adore him.

I'm a big one for reading books before seeing the movie, so since I had heard the movie wasn't so good, I didn't have many expectations... but I loved this quirky story and its hero/author. Hard to believe that anyone could survive that kind of crazy teen angst but it was so full of great '70s ambience that it seemed believable given the world of the late '70s.

(I can see why the movie didn't get great reviews- choppy scenes work in books but don't really make sense in the movie, not to mention some of the casting choices were wrong.)

(Reviewed 9/1/07)

Chaos, absurdity, and dark humor collide in a way that’s hard to categorize, making this memoir a rollercoaster of conflicting emotions. Augusten Burroughs paints a vivid and shocking portrait of his unconventional upbringing, where every chapter feels like stepping further into a bizarre alternate reality. The eccentric characters and over-the-top situations are equal parts fascinating and unsettling.

There’s no denying Burroughs’ sharp wit and ability to craft unforgettable scenes, but as the narrative progresses, the sheer weight of the chaos begins to feel less compelling and more exhausting. The humor, which starts off strong, often gives way to moments of unease, making it hard to fully enjoy or even process the stories being told. The Finch family, central to much of the memoir, feels so exaggerated at times that it’s hard to believe these are real people and not fabricated caricatures.

While the writing itself is engaging, the lack of balance between humor and trauma detracts from the overall experience. It’s a book that demands a reaction, and whether that’s amusement, shock, or discomfort, it’s rarely subtle. By the end, I was left with mixed feelings—impressed by Burroughs’ storytelling but also drained by the unrelenting strangeness of it all. This is a memoir for those who enjoy stepping far outside the realm of the ordinary, but it’s not one I’d revisit anytime soon.

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 American families in addition to the ironies of self-obsessed psychologies.

Written in cute concise prose, even if some jokes do not actually make you laugh but sicken you to the point of feeling truly bad for the preteen hero, the entire account is enormously entertaining, as is evident by the fast consumption of it.

The movie is actually... bad; despite Anette Bening, the creator of "Nip/Tuck" & the film's director does not go to where this descriptively homosexual, deeply self-reliant misfit of a person goes.

This book is supposed to be funny?! I kept waiting for the amusement as I waded through increasingly appalling characters that were not likable, interesting, or remotely relatable. Crazy and abusive is not quirky and lovable. Well I suppose there is a way to write it that way, but this is written with a tinge of bitterness. What is so amusing about royally screwing up a child's life?

Between books I'd try to get back into this story that was ok but not good enough to grab my attention. But it's a best seller and raved about how hilarious the book is so I kept trying to stick through it. I'm all for sad memoirs, but such flagrant abuse of every kind, the kind that require years of therapy, presented without love or reconciliation is not my kind of humor. Then to discover these crimes are mostly fabricated events about true people and I am supposed to take that kind of defamation with a laugh?

The story progressed from disturbing to all shades of disgusting until the filth was too much for me. I browsed a few of the later chapters, read the end, but nope there was no redemption, no coming to terms, nothing but a sick disaster. I'm not sure what all the craze is about unless it's solely popular amidst sociopaths who like to beat up little kids on Halloween and take their candy.

Narrated by: Augusten Burroughs

I'm so sorry that some children forced to live through such conditions of constant neglect and abuse! Adults ought to love and protect children, and not torment them instead!

I loved this book a lot. I am not sure that I buy that all that could have happened to one chid in one lifetime but looking at my own life it could be possible i guess. The book is a lot better than the movie but they both have their redeeming qualities.
I think that he is a great story teller and this is evident in his other books too.

'Running with Scissors' is a great memoir. It is full of whacked incidents describing the realities of living with relatives or friends who are not rational 60% of the time, and who are incompetent 100% of the time. When moderate levels of occasional violence occurred at home, Augusten Burroughs is fortunate that it was not primarily directed at himself or murderous.

Burroughs writes in a surprisingly amused, and minimally judgmental, present-tense procedural style. It is as if the book was based on an actual diary begun when the author was eleven years old and ended after he turned fourteen. Maybe the author, in readying the material for a book, edited his perhaps actual diary and added in an adult perspective, which serves to aid readers in placing the incidents in context.

All of the adults in his life, including a professional, socially respectable, licensed doctor of psychiatry, into whose care his insane mother had legally transferred him to be his legal guardian, were all living in an artistic high-end dystopia, without rules or laws. This was not a good thing. No one has ANY foundation to stand on. It is a chaos of moral weightlessness and madness.

The main underlying literary message is quite clear: Augusten was desperate for a normal parent/child relationship throughout his childhood. Since he did not actually have much adult supervision or normal socialization, I don't think he was confident enough to ask for help from the normal world. Instead, he seemed to suffer from a fear of being bullied or rejected by normal people (not without reason).

His guardians were all self-centered and mentally ill. None were socially competent adults. Burroughs grew up without boundaries or much direction. The only rule was he should make his own decisions. There was no recognition of his being a child. The reality was Burroughs was only an inexperienced and uneducated little boy on the cusp of puberty. I believe Burroughs meant readers to pick up on why, as a child, he did not have the words, or almost any strong psychological or moral context in which he had an understanding of the things that happened. All he did have was enough of a mentality to know he did not feel safe, loved or wanted. He wasn't hated or disliked in his childhood, just not wanted or loved much by his guardians.

Feeling unloved and unprotected drove Burroughs into having sex at age 13 with a 33-year-old, in my opinion. He obviously was not wrong to feel sex was the only comfort he was to be given. Burroughs' introduction to sexuality would have been considered a healthy event in this house, if any adult had cared enough about it to have an opinion. As it was, the other children felt Burroughs had the right to decide for himself.

This whacked paradigm in which the author lived as a little boy was one that labeled dysfunctional behavior as admirable creativity instead. It obviously was not.

Сензационалистичка аутофикција за одрасле. Натурализам који кулминира у бубашвабама и експлицитним педофилским сценама,

Were it fiction, I would have thought it outlandish and far-fetched. As a truthful memoir, it's mind-blowing. This is a recounting of piss-poor parenting of astronomic proportion. Who does this to a child?! And yet Augusten perseveres, his sense of humor (and fashion) intact, even when everyone around him seems destined for a mental or penal institution.

There were times when I had to put this book down and step away, but credit Burroughs' skill as a writer, interweaving levity into an often dark and tragic biography, I always came back.