Outside Reading: Week 1

Running With Scissors
By: Augusten Burroughs
A Memoir

I have already finished the memoir. I will still however be posting blogs according to the six sections I have divided it into (by pages):
1) 1-52
2) 53-104
3) 105-156
4) 157-208
5) 209-260
6) 261-315

Summary 1: Pgs. 1-52

The beginning of Running With Scissors is basically a background explanation of Augusten Burroughs (the author) and what he grew up around. He lives with his parents Deidre and Norman who are verbally and physically abusive towards one another. Augusten is usually witness to all of the violence that takes place in the household. They are seeing a psychiatrist known as Dr. Finch to try and repair, or rather control, their marriage. Eventually they divorce, and it is implied that Augusten will never hear from his father again. Now living with only his mother, Augusten expresses the depression he felt during this time. His mother continues to see her shrink Dr. Finch, and Augusten ends up staying at his house for weeks at a time. Because of this, his mother is becoming more and more distant from him. Auguesten does not like it there, for he stresses to keep himself clean and perfect, while the Finch’s act quite the opposite. The house is very messy, dirty, and disorganized. The Finch Family consists of the doctor’s two daughters, Natalie and Vickie, and his wife, Agnes. Augusten expresses the fact that he hates school and skips it as much as possible.