Running with Scissors
5 journalers for this copy...
Amazon.com
There is a passage early in Augusten Burroughs's harrowing and highly entertaining memoir, 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 meds and fooling around with both an old electroshock machine and a pedophile 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 glamorizes it: planning a "beauty empire" and performing an a capella version of "You Light Up My Life" at a local mental ward. Burroughs's 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's survivor mentality will guide him through and that the coffee table will be salvaged after all.
There is a passage early in Augusten Burroughs's harrowing and highly entertaining memoir, 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 meds and fooling around with both an old electroshock machine and a pedophile 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 glamorizes it: planning a "beauty empire" and performing an a capella version of "You Light Up My Life" at a local mental ward. Burroughs's 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's survivor mentality will guide him through and that the coffee table will be salvaged after all.
I've received the book as part of the Bookring. Thanks so much Tinkaday.
I'm looking forward to reading it!
I'm looking forward to reading it!
Sad, funny, bizarre, touching, strange, moving, but mostly, real. What a mixture of emotions!I couldn't tear myself away from it. There were moments when I wondered if this could really be a true story. I reccommend it to anyone (with good childhood memories or bad).
I'll be sending this tommorrow to the next reader on the list. Thanks Tinkaday
I'll be sending this tommorrow to the next reader on the list. Thanks Tinkaday
Journal Entry 4 by BettyBoekwurm at Book Ring in book ring/ray, By Mail/Post/Courier -- Controlled Releases on Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Released 17 yrs ago (5/23/2006 UTC) at Book Ring in book ring/ray, By Mail/Post/Courier -- Controlled Releases
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
RELEASE NOTES:
Bon Voyage...
Bon Voyage...
look what I got in the mail today - all the way from Portugal :)
will be read asap
will be read asap
That was a quick read - although many times a rather disturbing memoir this is a genuine pageturner. The writing is fluid and spiced with (dark)humor.
An interesting view at a different American way....
I certainly will get the sequel.
______________________
who's next ?
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08/23/2006 : will post in (German/Swiss/Austrian) Forum to raise some interest in this book (good chance regarding the upcoming movie adaption)
....guess this is rather a RAY (?)
An interesting view at a different American way....
I certainly will get the sequel.
______________________
who's next ?
______________________
08/23/2006 : will post in (German/Swiss/Austrian) Forum to raise some interest in this book (good chance regarding the upcoming movie adaption)
....guess this is rather a RAY (?)
will send this book further to:
- SwissShutist,CH
- booberst,D
- Schneefee,D
- samulli,D
- SwissShutist,CH
- booberst,D
- Schneefee,D
- samulli,D
Journal Entry 8 by JohnSteed at BookRay in ☑ 'Controlled Release' > Country > Province > City, .---controlled release---. Switzerland on Thursday, October 19, 2006
Released 17 yrs ago (10/19/2006 UTC) at BookRay in ☑ 'Controlled Release' > Country > Province > City, .---controlled release---. Switzerland
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
RELEASE NOTES:
>>>>>>>> SwissShutist
>>>>>>>> SwissShutist
Journal Entry 9 by SwissShutist from Ostermundigen, Bern / Berne Switzerland on Thursday, October 26, 2006
Came back today from my holiday in Turkey and found the book in the mail. Thanks Tinkaday, thanks JohnSteed.
Journal Entry 10 by SwissShutist from Ostermundigen, Bern / Berne Switzerland on Sunday, November 12, 2006
"We were young. We were bored. And the old electroshock therapy machine was just under the stairs in a box next to the hoover."
It's true: they are not doing with that machine what you might expect. But there are a lot of things going on in that book that you not even dream of, and...
...everybody is running with scissors all the time.
Insane and response promoting (wincing, retching, laughter).
It's true: they are not doing with that machine what you might expect. But there are a lot of things going on in that book that you not even dream of, and...
...everybody is running with scissors all the time.
Insane and response promoting (wincing, retching, laughter).
Journal Entry 11 by SwissShutist from Ostermundigen, Bern / Berne Switzerland on Saturday, November 18, 2006
From Monday (20th) on on its way to booberst.
Journal Entry 12 by nachdenker from Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Germany on Sunday, December 10, 2006
The book arrived a week ago. I had a time full of trouble, but now I am able to journal the book and after I'll have finished my last ring I can start with this one.
Thanks very much for this book and for sending it along.
Thanks very much for this book and for sending it along.