Running with Scissors that speaks volumes about the author. While going to the garbage dump with his father, young Augusten spots a chipped glass-top coffee table that he longs to bring home. "I knew I could hide the chip by fanning a display of magazines on the surface, like in a doctor's office," he writes, "And it certainly wouldn't be dirty after I polished it with Windex for three hours." There were certainly numerous chips in the childhood Burroughs describes: an alcoholic father, an unstable mother who gives him up for adoption to her therapist and an adolescence spent as part of the therapist's eccentric extended family, gobbling prescription medicines and fooling around with both an old electroshock machine and a paedophile who lives in a shed out back. But just as he dreamed of doing with that old table, Burroughs employs a vigorous program of decoration and fervent polishing to a life that many would have simply thrown in a landfill. Despite her abandonment, he never gives up on his increasingly unbalanced mother. And rather than despair about his lot, he glamorises it: planning a "beauty empire" and performing an a cappella version of "You Light Up My Life" at a local mental ward. Burroughs' perspective achieves a crucial balance for a memoir: emotional but not self-involved, observant but not clinical, funny but not deliberately comic. And it's ultimately a feel-good story: as he steers through a challenging childhood, there's always a sense that Burroughs' survivor mentality will guide him through and that the coffee table will be salvaged after all. --John Moe, Amazon.com
Running with Scissors that speaks volumes about the author. While going to the garbage dump with his father, young Augusten spots a chipped glass-top coffee table that he longs to bring home. "I knew I could hide the chip by fanning a display of magazines on the surface, like in a doctor's office," he writes, "And it certainly wouldn't be dirty after I polished it with Windex for three hours." There were certainly numerous chips in the childhood Burroughs describes: an alcoholic father, an unstable mother who gives him up for adoption to her therapist and an adolescence spent as part of the therapist's eccentric extended family, gobbling prescription medicines and fooling around with both an old electroshock machine and a paedophile who lives in a shed out back. But just as he dreamed of doing with that old table, Burroughs employs a vigorous program of decoration and fervent polishing to a life that many would have simply thrown in a landfill. Despite her abandonment, he never gives up on his increasingly unbalanced mother. And rather than despair about his lot, he glamorises it: planning a "beauty empire" and performing an a cappella version of "You Light Up My Life" at a local mental ward. Burroughs' perspective achieves a crucial balance for a memoir: emotional but not self-involved, observant but not clinical, funny but not deliberately comic. And it's ultimately a feel-good story: as he steers through a challenging childhood, there's always a sense that Burroughs' survivor mentality will guide him through and that the coffee table will be salvaged after all. --John Moe, Amazon.com
Advantages: Good entertainment, funny and easy to read Disadvantages: can't put it down, not good if reading on train, might miss stop
...This is a great story which has been made into a film for release soon. It's a humourous story about a boy from an unusual family, his mother gives him to her psyciatrist to live and be looked after but like his mother the psyciatrist and his family are also quite far from sane. Leading to a number of different occurances take place that do not usually occur in the life of young boys making it a riveting read. The book is a true story, which is suprising at some points during the book. Not for the narrow minded as it could be quite shocking/disturbing. AugustenBurroughs has a way with words, even the events in the book that should be somewhat depressing are made light hearted and humourous....
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...I haven't written many reviews of biographies or memoirs and I'm not quite sure how to structure this or where to start so please bear with me.
The Blurb
You may not know it, but you've met AugustenBurroughs. You\ve seen him in the street, in bars, on the underground, at restaurants: a twenty-something guy, nice suit, works in advertising. Regular. Ordinary. But when the ordinary person had two drinks, Augusten had twelve; when the ordinary person went home at midnight, Augusten never went home at all. At the request (well it wasn't really a request) of his employers, Augusten lands in rehab, where his dreams of group therapy with Robert Downey Jr are dashed by the grim reality of fluorecent lighting and paper hospital slippers. But when Augusten is forced to examine himself, that's when he finds himself in the worst trouble of all...
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Advantages: insightful, unusual characters, comical Disadvantages: sad
...Having read 'Running with Scissors' by AugustenBurroughs, I was eager to read his latest offering, 'Dry', described as a memoir. As soon as I saw the paperback copy, I grabbed it and took it off with me on holiday to Australia. I read it in three days.
In his own words, Augusten didn't have a conventional upbringing. 'When I was thirteen, my crazy mother gave me away to her lunatic psychiatrist, who adopted me. I then lived a life of squalor, paedophiles, no school and free pills'. This had been covered in hilarious (and often crude) terms in his previous book. 'Dry' continues Augusten's life from the age of 25 as he's, ahem, a 'responsible' employee in an advertising agency.
Augusten's drinking buddy is Jim. Jim is an undertaker and full of grisly stories he loves to relay to anyone who will listen on a night out. While...
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helpful 01.05.2005
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