Fair’s Fair “For Book Lovers”

Burroughs Augusten. Running with Scissors. A Memoir. New York: Picador, 2002.

Augusten Burroughs’ Running with Scissors is an intriguing memoir that is now a major motion picture. Out of curiosity I read half the memoirl, and then wandered over to Casablanca the alternative movie store in Calgary, AB, and rented the movie. Actually, I had to ask for the movie because it wasn’t on the new movie shelves, or in comedy, or documentary, or any of the places where I normally look for movies. When I finally asked the clerk her friend said, “Oh, I know that movie. It’s in the Cult section.” The young woman, whose knowledge and vocabulary impressed me, took me over to that section and found the movie for me. It has been slightly misfiled by a shelf or two. I found it interesting that Running with Scissors found its place in the Cult section, because I didn’t see too much that was cultish about it… At that point, though, I had only read the first three chapters that except for some of the language seemed “pretty tame,” by any standards. In fact, I found those first fifty pages extremely funny—almost like a satire of bits and pieces of Freud and Jung’s writings that I’ve read over time. Wanting to savour the humor of the memoir that I was quite enjoying, I watched the movie and then finished reading the book.

The book. Running with Scissors, and the motion picture based on the book are extremely different in various ways: The written memoir uses hyperbole throughout and is humorous in tone, even though it is a kind of black humor and satire; the motion picture is gloomy, and numerous scenes and comical moments are left out. The young boy, who is supposed to be twelve looks seventeen, and the psychiatrist character, Dr. Finch, doesn’t look anything like the Santa Claus figure that the book presents. In the movie, the doctor’s hunchback wife is not hunchbacked, although in the book she is described as having this medical condition and is seen from the young boy’s point of view as looking like a red and white stripped candy cane. The book blends the scenes dealing with homosexuality into the text, while the movie narrows in on those aspects. It is as though the written work presents a way of coping with a reality that is absurd, but certainly not unthinkable; the movie deals with the subconscious underpinnings of the novel. For this reason, I think it is useful to read the book and see the motion picture. The book is fast moving, and yes extremely funny at times. Even the serious implications are well-covered by a crazy quilt of fun.

There are a lot of memoirs published concerning mental illness in the United States in the 20th century. Discussion concerning homosexuality, alcoholism, abuse of women, and disturbed children are common subjects in many such works, but few are presented with such humor and with such vivid descriptions.

The memoir begins in a mundane fashion with a child Augustan who lives in Boston, Massachusetts. Deidre, his mother, is aspiring to be a poet. She is manic depressive and often under the care of the eccentric psychiatrist, Dr. Finch. The boy’s father is a math professor and an abusive alcoholic, and thus the dysfunctional family.

Augustan is by most standards a rather “odd” little character. He is fascinated with shiny things and boils his allowance to make it shine. He even wraps his dog in aluminum foil. He likes clothes, and desires order in his life. As life becomes more unlivable for Augustan and his mother, his mother goes under the care of Dr. Finch. Dr. Finch, himself, has some problems including cheating insurance companies, manipulating his patients with medication, and keeping a number of psychiatric patients at his own run-down home. He also keeps three or four wives, allows his children complete freedom, and has adopted some of his patients.
Dr. Finch’s forays to look at the contents in the toilet and his and the family’s practice of Bible dipping (sticking a finger on a word in the Bible and then trying to interpret its meaning as an answer to any questions of the day) are really no more absurd than a lot of the thoughts and ideas that Freud and Jung put forward.

Augustan has a hidden desire when young to be a doctor and his notion of the doctor in a white coat with stethoscope is thrown out of perspective by the unruly appearance and lifestyle of Dr. Finch and his family.

Eventually, Augustan’s father leaves and Dr. Finch deems Augustan’s mother as unable to look after Augustan. He becomes Augustan’s legal guardian. Despite the disarray of the doctor’s house and the strangeness of the doctors various daughters and wife, Augusten does have some enjoyable times at the Finch’s. He has an unhealthy affair with Finch’s adopted son, but seems to find a companion in Finch’s daughters. They live among an array of pets, roaches, psychiatric patients, and so on.

Deidre finally realizes that Dr. Finch has drugged her to take advantage of her on a number of occasions. Dr. Finch denies her accusations and wants to have her committed to a mental asylum. By this point Augusten and one of Finch’s daughters have rented an apartment together, but they take sides on the issue; Augusten with his mother; the daughter, Natalie, with Finch. They break up.

Augusten finally wanders off and goes to New York to write a novel.

This memoir is a worthwhile read—the foul language, rather mundane sex scenes and so on aside—it is one of the most imaginative, colourful memoirs that I have read, even more so than such memoir’s as Electroboy where a young man who is manic depressive writes an intriguing and fast paced story about his condition. Running wish Scissors is worthwhile, I think, because the absurdity of it is truly real and the heightened language that is often humorous is the sort of coping mechanism a young boy might use in what would otherwise be an unbearable way of life. As such, the memoir is a study in the realities of human life, and it demonstrates the strength of spirit that can rise through the darkness of desperate situations.

Since the publication of the book and the making of the motion picture, Burroughs has had to deal with numerous legal issues dealt to him by the family of the doctor who became his legal gaurdian. They claim much of the work is false. None of this seems to have bothered Burroughs’ mother much though; she has her own website online—a well manicured website with some of her poems, essays, and pictures on it.

All the hype around the legal proceedings concerning Runnning with Scissors and the motion picture of it only seem to add another layer to the story, which whether or not it is true is certainly imaginative and original.