Resumo de Running With Scissors (the New York Times Bestseller)

The paper back edition of this non-fiction book, which is a New York Times best seller, has been on this list for 125 weeks. It is a true, & amazingly different life story of a young boy (Augusten himself) living in Massachusetts, starting from the age of seven, who has the talent to constantly write all events one by one. Written as a memoir with 26 Chapters, the names & other identifications of the persons have been changed, & their present status given in the epilogue.The memoir opens with the problems of his childhood, the chain smoker & poetess mother, & alcoholic & unhelpful father(mathematics professor), who is also suffering from psoriasis & knee problems due to arthritis. The parents frequently quarrel, scream, call names, fight & threaten & once his father had a bleeding injury. Due to the likely homicidal tendency in the house, both parents take advice of Dr. Finch, a psychiatrist. The mother started seeing more & more of Dr. Finch. He has three mistresses. He has seven children, five daughters & one son of his own, & one adopted son. Finally, it leads to the divorce of Augusten's parents, & contacts with his father are broken. His mother visits the house (which is an old wooden house & kept badly)of Dr. Finch, who is also called crazy & leaves Augusten when he is about twelve years old, with Dr. Finch for safety, due to her inability to look after him, may be for several weeks. He spends lot of time & grows during his adolescence, in that bizarre family. Natalie, the young daughter of Dr. Finch is living in love with Terrance, one of the old patients of Dr. Finch. Fern Stewart is a minister's wife & a friend of Augusten's mother. They had developed physical relationships, & later on, they break their relationship. Augusten's elder brother Troy considers Finches as freaks, & he remained away from them. Dr. Finch gives some pills to Augusten (as if to prove that Augusten wanted to commit suicide) & then he is taken to hospital for a stomach wash, & later on subjected to group therapy. Augusten's mother makes Dr. Finch as his legal guardian. Cesar Mendoza (who is married & has two daughters) met Augusten's mother in mental hospital, loves her & wants to marry her. Dr. Finch stated that Augusten's mother went psychotic, since she was in love with him, but she won't admit it. Augusten books an apartment & gets a job as a waiter in a restaurant. The book ends on a different & an upbeat note, with Augusten overcoming & surviving many extra ordinary challenges & problems of his childhood, & views his bright future in New York City, with the confidence that, he will be able to guide himself & survive there with his past experience.
The anecdotes narrated in the book are occasionally funny, e.g. the description of the parade with balloons on the Father's day. An example of his style of humour is (quote) Doctor, if being a bitch is healthy, then I am the healthiest damn woman on the face of the earth.(unquote) In the house of Dr. Finch, his patients visit him frequently, medicines are consumed without necessity & prescription & electroshock machine is used for amusement. Augusten is also not able to go to the school. He continues to be on the side of his mother, even though his mother's instability goes on increasing. Contents of the book have strangeness, crudeness, graphic narration & adult sexual bent material at several places, seen in detail just as a child observes some events & the same is reproduced by him frame by frame. These may shock, provoke & disturb some of the readers. Sometimes, the writer's description may not appear to be responsible enough. Some of the situations look to be bizarre & absurd. Various characters have been well portrayed in this memoir. This book is an odd, but an interesting & entertaining one.

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