Book 5 - Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

Running with Scissors

By, Augusten Burroughs

352 pages - 3.25 stars

Another Book Club book!

Running with Scissors is Augusten Burroughs' memoir of his messed-up childhood. In a nutshell. The book is a engaging, and a really quick read but when you've finished it, you're left with what amounts to a really messed-up childhood.

That's not to say that you're overwhelmed by that the entire time. Burroughs does a really great job of putting you in the mindset of a child, specifically of him as a child, so that you don't necessarily even notice that he's surrounding by chaos and craziness. The weirdest of moments seem normal as they happen - as I'm sure they came to feel normal (in a sense) for him - but at the end of the book you look back upon a cadre of weird moments, abusive moments.

It's hard to know whether Burroughs embellished, or whether the story is tainted by his perspective, or whether this is how his childhood actually went. The book was engaging but I have to admit that I wasn't left with a ton afterward. The book didn't stay with me and looking back, I wonder if I was driven forward by the quality of the book or by the incredibility of the story.

For those of you who don't know, Burrough's book was made into a movie in 2006 and both Burroughs' mom and brother have since written memoirs, somewhat contradicting this one, somewhat enforcing it. I have to admit that I'm curious about them, but probably not enough to read them.