Running With Scissors: A Memoir

Running with Scissors features a gay protagonist as he discovers himself and grows up amid a chaotic and unusual environment. To what extent was this novel progressive for its time in the early 2000s? How did its depiction of gay relationships either help or harm the LGBTQ community?

Burroughs (Chris Robison) was sued by the Turcotte (Finch) family for inaccurate and defamatory depictions of them in his memoir, now referred to as a book post-lawsuit. Do you think Burroughs decided to embellish his memoir so significantly? If so, why? How does knowing this affect the reading experience?

What does Augusten mean when he concludes that he has “earned a Ph.D. in survival” (301)? How did his upbringing differ from a traditional one, and how does he believe this prepared him for the unpredictable future?

Burroughs’s book explores the ways in which two dysfunctional families, the Finches and his biological family, shaped and hardened him as a person. In what ways did the people in Burroughs’s life influence the person he became, and why does he decide to separate himself from both families in the end?

Augusten cares deeply about cleanliness and his appearance, and the Finch family seems to be the complete opposite. How does the juxtaposition of cleanliness and filth in the novel characterize the protagonist and other people in his life? Why else are these motifs so prominent throughout the novel?

Augusten was a teenager when the events depicted in his book took place. How does the tone and writing style change as he matures, and how does his age affect the reliability of his narration? What might he not have understood regarding the lives of the adults around him?

As Augusten grows up, he realizes that “normal” is more of a mask that people wear than a factual reality. What experiences does Augusten have that bring on this realization? How does learning this change the way he views himself and his future?

Throughout the novel’s exposition, Augusten foreshadows upcoming events and issues, such as the harms of Dr. Finch’s unconventional practice and Dierdre’s mental health condition. How does he foreshadow these events, and how does his hindsight as an adult illuminate the true nature of the people in his life and the relationships he formed with them?