Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Grew Up... with his parents always fighting. They eventually separated. But after that his mother began to go crazy. As he says, "Not in a 'Let's paint the kitchen red!' sort of way. But crazy in a 'gas oven, toothpaste sandwich, I am God' sort of way." His drunk father didn't want him, so Augusten was sent away.
Living... with his mom's psychiatrist Dr. Finch who agreed to take care of him starting when he was 12. He lives with Dr. Finch's biological children and some others he adopted. At Dr. Finch's house, there are no rules for the kids – just total chaos. The house is a pigsty, with dishes piled up to the ceiling and a two-year-old Christmas tree with just a few needles left.
Profession... aspiring writer. Though for now he is resigned to being a high school student. He shows up at homeroom but then leaves most days to watch movies, read Stephen King books, or write in his journal. And since has no friends, no one really misses him.
Relationship Status... involved with Neil, Dr. Finch's adopted son, who is nearly 20 years older than him. Neil is Augusten’s first relationship since he came out.
Challenge... feeling torn between his mother and Dr. Finch. His mother claims that Dr. Finch has been controlling her, manipulating her emotionally and with drugs. She thinks he's a very sick man.
Personality... surprisingly normal for what he has been through. Augusten is coming of age in the most eccentric circumstances. His secret for getting through everything is just to laugh through the pain and record the good stories for a book some day. He certainly has a lot of strange material to work with.
Get to Know him in...
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Young Augusten Burroughs absorbs experiences that could make for a shocking memoir: the son of an alcoholic father and an unstable mother, he's handed off to his mother's therapist, Dr. Finch, and spends his adolescent years as a member of Finch's bizarre extended family.
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Now including an excerpt from Lust & Wonder, a new memoir coming in March 2016. Running with Scissors is the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her psychiatrist, a dead-ringer for Santa and a lunatic in the bargain. Suddenly, at age twelve, Augusten Burroughs found himself living in a dilapidated Victorian in perfect squalor. The doctor's bizarre family, a few patients, and a pedophile living in the backyard shed completed the tableau. Here, there were no rules, there was no school. The Christmas tree stayed up until summer, and Valium was eaten like Pez. And when things got dull, there was always the vintage electroshock therapy machine under the stairs.... Running with Scissors is at turns foul and harrowing, compelling and maniacally funny. But above all, it chronicles an ordinary boy's survival under the most extraordinary circumstances.
