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 literary gold, and most probably embellished as brilliant authors often do. The characters were apparently easily correlated to their real-life counterparts.

And so, things haven't changed all that much. Augusten Burroughs has recently settled a lawsuit with the Turcotte family, referred to as "the Finches," in "Running with Scissors," for defamation, invasion of privacy, and emotional distress. This is due to events in the book claiming that the Turcottes advocated sex between children and adults, Turcotte's wife eating dog food, and the family using an electroshock machine that it stored under the stairs for recreation.

I can honestly say that, If I were a member of the Turcotte household and knew that the events depicted in the book were undeniably false, I would most likely be outraged and choose the same course of action.

That being said.

This is simply one of the most engaging, darkly humorous, and skillfully written books I have read in years. The delusional mother, the unorthodox psychiatrist; every single character jumps off of the page in bizarre, warped technicolor. Hilarious. Horrifying. Difficult to describe.

Skip the movie adaptation, which seems to lack the sense of absurdity in many key places.

Does it have to be true to be brilliant writing?

Burroughs does an amazing job of being funny & profound, never self-pitying despite impossible upbringing.

After digesting for over a month now, I still feel this autobiography-memoir beyond bizarre and belief....Can all of it really be true?

Can I believe the doctor depict herein holds a medical degree from one of the most prestigious universities in America, i.e.....Yale? Hmmmmm....pretty hard to believe, and disheartening too.

Anyway, it's the 1970's and all hell breaks loose when 12 year old Augusten's disturbed poetry writing mother and alcoholic father divorce and mother dear ultimately sends him off to live in the "sagging pink house" of her psychiatrist, Dr. Finch.

His filthy wreck of a house is filled with his children (adopted included) and is open to virtually anyone else who wants to stay for a spell. Most residents are a bit strange, to say the least, including a 33 year old gay pedophile who likes to eat dog food.

With zero parental guidance, role models from hell and a continual..disgusting..dysfunctional..environment, of course Augusten's life was in turmoil; and if even half of what I read here is true, it is a wonder AB made it out in one piece....physically and mentally.

As for the good doctor....Good Lord! An office visit includes a tour and description of his Masturbatorium that patients are invited to use....the crazy Doctor also believes in evaluating his own sh*t to foretell the future (although, of course, he doesn't scoop it himself)........and well, the list goes on and on including the bizarre family "bible dip" predictions, but you get the picture. The smartest family member was actually the old family dog who decided it best to stay on at the original residence with strangers. Wish poor Freud the starved cat COULD have followed his lead.

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS is #13 on the Goodread's Best Autobiography and Non-fiction life stories list. Read it and see what you think. Didn't have a problem with EDUCATED (read back-to-back with RWS) but sure found this one hard to swallow. Yikes!