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BOOK DESCRIPTION:

"The true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her unorthodox psychiatrist who bore a striking resemblance to Santa Claus. So, at the age of 12, Burroughs found himself admist Victorian squalor, living with the doctor's bizarre family, and befriending a pedophile who resided in the backyard shed. The story of an outlaw childhood where rules are unheard of, and the Christmas tree stayed up all year-round, where Valium was consumed like candy, and if things got dull, an electroshock-therapy machine could provide entertainment. The funny, harrowing and bestelling account of an ordinary boy's survival under the most extraordinary circunstances." (Description from back of book)

Purchased for $1 @ my library's rummage sale for RABCK/Trade/Release purposes.

I will be mailing this to linguistkris on 8 March 2007, as soon as I get back from Malta and she has sent me her address! She requested it specially. Please make a journal entry!

Wow Germanophile, thank you so much, this is lovely!
(Intrigued to learn from the envelope that somewhere in Germany there is a road named "Hundert Morgen" -- makes me want to read Winnie the Pooh! :))

An absolute roller coaster ride of a memoir.

While I especially in the earlier chapters found the parallels to David Sedaris that were claimed by the press, I really ceased to find the book funny in the second half. Mind you, it was still well-written and there were absolutely outrageous scenes, but it all was just too serious for me to still feel like laughing. But that was probably also because I started to feel closer to the narrator. There isn't much that connected me to the 11 year old that was obsessed with perfectly pressed trousers, but the confusion of the later years, the question of what to do with one's life, or how to handle the frailty of people you'd love to rely on, was something that most people will have gone through in their lifes. Although of course this story puts it all into perspective.

Well, and I thought I was unhappy when I was 14! At least I wasn't in a relationship with someone I had to detest because he would adore me too much, but wouldn't be able to split up with because his blow jobs were too good...
This is really the greatest thing about Running with Scissors: It confronts you with all these realisations that you'd rather not spend too much time thinking about (like I know exactly how that is. To love somebody who doesn't deserve it. Because they are all you have. Because any attention is better than no attention.) and that you just wish teenagers wouldn't have to have, and then the story pushes on and plunges you into something so absolutely wild, crazy and outrageous that these minor little drawbacks of real life hardly seem to count anymore if existence also includes taking out kitchen ceilings, Christmas trees lasting into May, thrashing hotel rooms because the manager was a jerk or similar. Wow.

RELEASE NOTES:

An Diamondlucy

"Found" the book on Linguist's bookpile. Since I have read "Dry" already I expect quite a lot since I loved "dry".

Thanks for sharing. Will try to get it done till the meetup to pass it on to Feloris :-)

I'd never imagined how hard it was for me to read a book to a certain deadline, especially since I am reading all the time anyway - normally. LOL.

I really liked the biography, to some degrees I really had to wonder whether it was made up or really had happened. I wish I could re-read "Dry" now though, it would give the book another, very interesting perspective... Mhm.

Wow, another surprise that I received yesterday! Thanks, I will hopefully read it soon. :)

I lent this book to my sister, so it was gone for a while. However, she read and loved it (althought she did say it was weird).
I'm not sure whether I'm going to read it now - so many books everywhere! We'll see.

Have fun reading! :)

i saw the movie a few years ago without knowing it's actually based on a book. by incident i found this copy and remembered the title. thanks for sharing! i will pass it on to my sister and her boyfriend.