Running With Scissors: A Memoir

Burroughs (whose real name is Chris Robison) originally wrote Running with Scissors and had it published as a memoir, with the assumption that its content was factual. In the years following its publication, some of the figures featured in it began speaking out that it was not only embellished but, in many ways, factually inaccurate and blatantly false. In particular, the Turcotte family (known as the Finches in the book) sued Burroughs for $2 million for emotional distress, defamation, and invasion of privacy. As a result, in subsequent releases, the author’s note refers to Running with Scissors as a “book” rather than a “memoir,” and new editions include a disclaimer acknowledging that the Turcottes disagree with Augusten’s depictions of them. Furthermore, new editions of the book communicate an apology for any unintentional harm that the claims caused the Turcotte family.

The unreliable nature of Burroughs’s book raises critical questions about what defines a memoir. Some see a memoir as being permissive to one’s own view and thus allowing for embellishment of the events recounted within it. Others believe that a memoir should be completely based on truth and fact alone, and that its writer should make their best effort to avoid representing people or events inaccurately. Burroughs is an unreliable narrator both because of the questionability of his book and because he was a child during the time that the events it describes took place. As a result, a person reading his book can choose to view it as a fiction novel or as a truthful memoir. The experience is different in each case, and the reader is in both instances left to question whether what they’re reading is real. Burroughs maintains that his book is a true memoir and that he didn’t fictionalize any part of it.