Running with Scissors
by Augusten Burroughs
Published by Picador
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Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart
I bought Running with Scissors only because I had seen a movie trailer and heard, somewhere, that Annette Benning, who plays the completely dysfunctional mother, might get an Oscar nod. I had also heard/read somewhere that Augusten Burroughs' memoir of a year, possibly two, of his childhood was more a.k.a. James Frey than real.
Structurally, from a craft point of view, Running with Scissors is flawless. It's well-written, flows well, no unnecessary words, nothing jarring or out of place, dialogue does what it is supposed too. I can see why it would become a best seller. I can only dream of ever writing that well. It's writing at its finest.
From a believability point of view, I don't buy it. Fiction, yes; really happened, maybe, sort of, perhaps. Episodes might be stretched. But as an honest-to-God, this was my life, this was the way it happened, nope. Maybe I've become too jaded, or more important, I've studied the craft of autobiography/memoir writing too much. It's a question that has been hotly debated with my writer buddies: How much literary license can a writer take and still remain in the realm of authenticity? Hmmm.
For those, like me, who didn't know the premise, Running with Scissors is the story of 12-year-old Augusten Burroughs, whose self-centered mother sends him to live with her completely unorthodox psychiatrist and his family for a year. The Finches have an open life-style where no one really knows, or cares, whose doing what and can't clean up after themselves. The image of the Thanksgiving turkey carcass still being in the house at Easter and other such dirty habits made me nauseous.
Many reviewers have the words "hilarious" and "horrifying" somewhere in their critiques. Nothing was funny and it was too over the top to be horrifying. Maybe it was the affair and explicit sex scenes between Burroughs and a 33-year-old man, sanctified by the family that made me uncomfortable.
On the other hand, truth is stranger than fiction, and if this really happened to Burroughs, I hope he is getting counseling.
Armchair Interviews says: Truth or fiction?