Running with Scissors in Queereaders

Apr 16, 2008 Shannon rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, memoirs

I really don't care how true this book is, I thought it was fucking good. People should stop worrying so much about the "truth" and just enjoy this book for how it is written: awesomely.

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Sep 16, 2008 Iamshadow rated it really liked it

Shelves: autobiography, nonfiction

I can't comment on the authenticity of the work, because I am supremely ignorant of both sides of the legal case surrounding this book.

However, what I can comment on is my emotional reaction to it. I liked it very much.

There is a tremendous glut of child abuse memoirs on the market, and most of them are sensationalist, poorly written crap. The angst is wound up to an extraordinary degree, and they all have titles like 'Broken' or 'Sold' or 'Daddy/Mummy Don't Hurt Me'.

Now, I have read child abus I can't comment on the authenticity of the work, because I am supremely ignorant of both sides of the legal case surrounding this book.

However, what I can comment on is my emotional reaction to it. I liked it very much.

There is a tremendous glut of child abuse memoirs on the market, and most of them are sensationalist, poorly written crap. The angst is wound up to an extraordinary degree, and they all have titles like 'Broken' or 'Sold' or 'Daddy/Mummy Don't Hurt Me'.

Now, I have read child abuse memoirs in the past. It was a way to connect with my own (less than ideal) childhood, process it, pack it away, and move on. But the sheer volume of books on the market has exploded in the last couple of years. They take up most of the biography section in an average book shop, and if I decide to look in the Child Psychology section of my local Borders, it's a real effort to find actual books on child psychology amid the dross.

For all the good some of these books might do, I feel there's a danger in them, too. People who've been abused and are still processing it might feel that they're not worthy to feel messed up because they weren't made to swallow bleach or set on fire. Or people who are doing okay might wonder if suddenly they're going to 'crack' and spew out all this repressed anger and fear because they didn't go to therapy, or never confronted their attacker/s, when in actuality, they really are fine.

This isn't one of those sensationalist tales of abuse with a pouting cherub on the cover.

This is one of those rare books (be they fiction or fact) that shows that you can live in shocking conditions and laugh. You can learn to adapt. You can smile at or shrug off something an outsider would find horrific or upsetting or downright sick, because for you, that's just life. It's gallows humour, and if you ever meet a person who's been through a rough patch, either in childhood or adulthood, and lived to tell the tale, they'll be likely to have a measure of it.

I can see that for some, this might be very difficult to read, because there are some parts that are graphic and disturbing. But for me, I read most of this book with a big smile on my face. People take the horror out of things by laughing at them, like Mel Brooks mocking Nazis. It doesn't mean he thinks that the Holocaust was funny; he just knows that by letting horror rule your life, you let the bastards win. That's the message of this book, in my opinion, and it's a valid and important one, regardless of the authenticity. ...more

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Sep 29, 2008 Zweegas rated it liked it

This book is more like a collection of short stories sharing a common thread rather than a fully-formed novel. It's about a dysfunctional childhood with sexual abuse and eccentric family members. Is it supposed to be shocking? Is it supposed to be funny? Is it supposed to just be interesting? The stories are presented in a way that seems really hollow to me. It's like reading it is supposed to be the kind of funny that's not supposed to be funny but you just can't help but laugh, but instead of ...more

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May 06, 2008 treehugger rated it really liked it

Shelves: read_2009, own_it, memoir

For some reason when I read Augusten Burroughs he sounds a lot like David Sedaris. Are all the gay boy writers of this generation speaking with the same voice? And how did they all end up with such deeply disturbing and tragic lives?

Enjoyable book, horrible adolescence. This book made me spend hours and hours looking up articles about the "Finch" family, and I don't really believe their stories that what Burroughs wrote is so far off the mark...and I think it's creepy that the doctor really does ...more

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Aug 02, 2007 Annie Dalton rated it it was ok

I wasn't impressed. And I didn't enjoy the cold, disconnected writing. That might have been some kind of a point, style of writing, or part of the “experience” the author was trying to communicate- our societies disconnected and unemotional youth- but, it wasn't for me. The situations were disturbingly weird in a way that has the potential to be awesome and fascinating. It just didn’t get there for me. ...more

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Jun 06, 2007 Adam Hodgins rated it it was ok

Shelves: memoirs-biography

This was ok. I liked parts of it, the descriptions of his mother breakdowns really rang true to me. But I just dont buy most of his story, it seems made up or at least embellished.

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