Running with Scissors (memoir)
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| Author | Augusten Burroughs |
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| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Memoir |
| Publisher | Picador USA |
| Released | Reprint edition (June 2003) |
| Pages | 320 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-312-42227-X |
Running with Scissors is a 2002 memoir by American writer Augusten Burroughs. It is subtitled as "a memoir". The book tells the story of Burroughs' bizarre childhood life after his mother, who had an obsession with Anne Sexton, sent him to live with her psychiatrist.[1]
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[edit] Plot
Running with Scissors covers the period of Burroughs' disturbed adolescent and teenage years, starting at age twelve. Burroughs is sent to live with his mother's psychiatrist, Dr. Finch, when his parents separate and his mother comes out as a lesbian. He lives in dirty conditions, where rules are practically non-existent and children of all ages basically do whatever they want. Burroughs tells Dr. Finch's adopted 33-year-old son, Neil Bookman, that he is gay. From the age of thirteen to fifteen, Burroughs has an intense and open sexual relationship with Bookman, which started when Bookman forced the young boy to perform oral sex on him. Neither his psychotic mother nor any member of the Finch family try to stop the relationship. Bookman is besotted with the young boy but later, suddenly disappears and is never to be seen again.
Burroughs forms a strong sibling relationship with Dr. Finch's daughter, Natalie, who is one year older than he, and together they somehow break away from the madness of the Finch household as they make their separate ways in life. As an older teen, Burroughs accepts his homosexuality.
[edit] Adaptations
The film adaptation of Running with Scissors stars Annette Bening, Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, Evan Rachel Wood, Jill Clayburgh, Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Cross as Burroughs, and was released in 2006.
"Running With Scissors" is also a song, written by Cindy Nelson for the movie, Running with Scissors, based on Augusten Burroughs' best selling memoir, and released for National radio airplay in October of 2006.
[edit] Legal case
In 2005, the Turcotte family of Massachusetts filed suit against Burroughs and his publisher, alleging defamation of character and invasion of privacy, among other things, stating that they were the basis for the Finch family portrayed in the book but that Burroughs had fabricated or exaggerated various descriptions of their activities. [2] [3]
[edit] References
- ^ Picador book review
- ^ Mehegan, David. "'Scissors' case cuts deep in book world", Boston Globe, 2005-08-17. Retrieved on 2006-09-04.
- ^ Contrada, Fred. "Suit Says 'Running With Scissors' Cut From Whole Cloth", Newhouse News Service, 2005-08-5. Retrieved on 2006-11-27.
[edit] See also
Referenced in the non-fiction section of Pedophilia and child sexual abuse in fiction
[edit] External links
- Summary of Running With Scissors - free wiki of chapter and character summaries at wikisummaries.org
- Running with Scissors at the Internet Movie Database
- Dr. R.H. Turcotte, M.D. Memorial Website
- Margaret Robinson's Personal Site - Burrough's Mother
