Running with Scissors

Augusten Burroughs's memoir, Running with Scissors, is about his life from around the age of ten or twelve until eighteen/adulthood. I listened to the Audio Renaissance version narrated by the author. The story begins with Augusten's childhood with his parents when Dr. Finch is first introduced into their lives. His parents begin seeing Dr. Finch for family counseling, which then evolves into his mother seeing Dr. Finch by herself for psychiatric counseling. When he is twelve, Augusten's mother gives custody of her son to Dr. Finch, and so begins a merry-go-round of craziness.

It was really hard for me to believe that this was a true story. Not that I doubted the truthfulness of Burroughs. Rather, parts of the story were just so incredible (not always or even usually in a good way) that I couldn't believe someone would actually do that, and then I took a beat to remember that the events recorded did, in fact, take place. Burroughs writing style is enjoyable and easy-to-read, novel style. He has a nice balance of dialogue and action, as well as humor and drama. So, even though I found this memoir strange, it was an enjoyable listen.