Rating: 
Summary: I REALLY wanted this book to be good.
Review: Okay so you have read enough of the reviews to get the idea of this book...if not DO so...they are right here, easy to find. Rather than rehash that...a waste of electrons....let me just suggest that I really wanted this book to be good. It sounded like a wildly entertaining danse mababre. It was funny at times, sometimes outrageous. But it the end it was a hollow experience. I found it to have a pervasive sense of hollowness. It was as though the author was willing to shed light on his experiences but could not explore the shadows that light creates. I understand that it was a work of humor but what happens when the humor is just not that funny and you are left with the pathos? Laugh out loud funny.....nah....but I did smile a few times.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny Moments In a Childhood Of Pathos
Review: The only beef I had with what I considered to be well written book was that I spent much of the time reading it utterly horrified at what this guy went through in his childhhod. Falling under the category of truth is stranger than fiction, Augusten Burroughs is lucky to have any sense of humor at all in regards to his past. A near psychotic Mother, a non existant emotionally detached Father, and a Doctor that gives a hideous name to psychiatry, are just a fraction of his distorted reality. I wanted to love it and again only didn't because I found myself so depressed at the circumstances. From reading some other reviews, I guess many people have compared him to David Sedaris, and that seems inevitable given they both had some wacky incidents in their lives. I just never felt that Sedaris' were as potentially dangerous and destructive as the world Burroughs presents.
Rating: 
Summary: This Just Doesn't Cut It!
Review: When I used to grade student themes, I could find something good to say about the worst of papers. Here goes for this book. The title is clever; some of the chapter titles are clever; the writer can turn a phrase. I'm thinking now, for example, of his description of his mother's Georgia accent making everything she said sound "like it went through a curling iron." I suspect Mr. Burroughs would be a scintillating dinner guest, but I did not need, however, 300 or so pages about these people none of whom I cared a whit about. My first problem with the book is the author's note: "The names and other identifying characteristics of the persons included in this memoir have been changed." Doesn't changing "indentifying characteristics" make this book fiction? At the very least, the reader has the right to ask how much of these events really happened. For the author's sake, I hope many of them did not. This is simiply the worst book I've read this year with no other book coming anywhere close to being second. I thought I would not be able to finish it and cannot for the life of me understand how it (a)was a best seller and(b) got all those glowing reviews. Try this little tidbit. The crazy psychiatrist who takes in this youngster to save him from his crazy mother-- I believe Mr. Burroughs is 12 when he begins this tale-- for a time looks at his excrement every morning in the toilet bowl to see if the "coils" turn upward. If they do "coil upward," this is a good omen for him. I rest my case.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome Read!
Review: I thought my childhood was wild! This is a great book. I think this author has amazing talent and a knack for telling a story. I finished the whole book in about 4 hours. It reads well and is incredibly interesting, you don't want to put it down. You are constantly asking yourself, people don't do these things do they??? The Finch family is completely "off the chain"!!
Rating:
Summary: avoid reading/listening and eating at the same time
Review: I am not going to be pretentiously blase and say that I was not shocked. RWS is shocking, hilarious, disturbing, etc. I will say that I listened to the unabridged-read-by-the-author CD's and, like David Sedaris, the author's reading probably makes it more authentic (to what the author intended). I highly recommend the CD's, but not while you're eating if you 1) have a weak stomach and 2) tend to choke on food and drink upon hearing shocking/funny/gross/disturbing things. There are enough reviews here to wade through so....., uh, ignore the ones that panned it. If you were entertained by the movie "Happiness", this one is like Happiness on steroids (or crack, speed, heroin, crank, etc). Also recommended for fans Sedaris, David Cross (and maybe that guy that wrote "A Boy Called 'It'"). Also, if you or have whiney "friends" that are hung up over screwed up childhoods, this will assist in pulling your or their heads out of your arses.....regardless if RWS is a true account..... and if not, it's at least extremely entertaining
Rating:
Summary: Submission at the YELLow Submarine
Review: The truth, as is say, IS stranger than fiction. Destruction and insanity of the most pernicious kind proliferate at the hands of the insane Dr. Finch. Unfortunately, the author's version of the truth is full of denial and nescience of the perverted consequences one evil man had in the lives of many who trusted him, including his own family...
Rating:
Summary: submission at the yellow submarine
Review: The truth, as they say, IS stranger than fiction. In the house of denial, crazziness abounds and breeds unspeakable acts.
Rating: 
Summary: Too skinny.
Review: Well, there are certainly some interesting situations in this book, and it's a wonder that the author managed to walk away with any sanity whatsoever. However, many of the situations in the book that would have been very interesting to explore don't go anywhere. The relationships between the author and the Finches are chopped short repeatedly, and don't really give a clear picture of those relationships developing over time. For example, he seems to be developing a close relationship with the older Finch girl, and then he seems to be spending all of his time with another one, and I was wondering what happened to his relationship with the first one. It gave me the impression that the book is a collection of random experiences, rather than a cohesive story. I think it's important to note that there is a very graphic description of his first gay sexual experience which surprised me with its detail. (The one place where I didn't really want a lot of detail.)
Rating:
Summary: Coming of Age in a Distorted World
Review: This memoir provides unusual insight into the distortion of mental illness: what's feels "normal" truly isn't normal within the standards western society. Mr. Burroughs is buffeted by love that abandons, love that controls, love that abuses. Yet, he survives and many times is the only sane person in his world. Amusing, heartbreaking, at times uncomfortable, finally hopeful.
Running with Scissors (great title!) expands your perspective and in the end leaves you with a greater capacity for compassion to fellow man. Childhood can be hell, some worse that others. p.s. For a novel with similar themes, check out White Oleander by Janet Fitch
Rating:
Summary: It's like reading about a traffic accident...
Review: You can't stop but watch and wonder. Augusten Burroughs delightfully grim memoir, "Running with Scissors", chronicles his early life with such candor and honesty, you both admire and pity the lad, all the while laughing and staring. Augusten was certainly dealt some challenges in his early life. That he grew up to survive them is a testament to his strength of character, or just pure determination. It is easy to see how he survives though. He writes himself as a strong character in this memoir, the sane person in a loony bin, if you will. He is patient observer of all the madness around him. While he certainly fits into the mob with his own pecularities (I personally related to his fascination with Donny and Marie's sparkling clothing!), he also writes as if watching this from afar. Perhaps that distance allowed him to write such a funny, surreal book. Burroughs writing style is easy and familiar. Burroughs writes upfront and honestly, in a matter of fact way, almost as if giving a news report on the insanity around him. It is a brisk, entertaining read that you will not want to put down. I honestly cannot wait to see who dares to make a movie out of this wonderful tale. "Running with Scissors", one of the most entertaining books I've read this year!
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