running with scissors - augusten burroughs

I read a lot of books and go to the movies fairly frequently, and am always interested to see what a movieis like when it has first been a bestseller, such as the Da Vinci Code and Freedomland, which turned out to be long, slow-paced, yawn-inducing films. This week, on October 27th, Running with Scissors is released at the cinema and I can't wait to see it. I have been an Augusten Burroughs fan, ever since I read Magical Thinking, in which Augusten told some very funny tales of people and places he had encountered while working for an advertising agency.

I read the book Running with Scissors, and was not disappointed with the humor and wildly outrageous situations Augusten once again encountered. The thing that is bizarre about this book is that it is a memoir and these things actually happened to him. Many people claim that they are from a dysfunctional family and that their childhood was not the norm, but I think everything about Augusten's daily life was exceptional in more ways than one! He is an amazing storyteller and manages to make this journal of his life both entertaining and funny, even when it is sometimes sad and you turn the pages just willing something good to happen to him. Like the time when he and his adopted sister, Natalie, walk round the town looking for work - you get the impression they are not really employable, and can understand why people are turning them away, but hey give these kids a chance, you can't help thinking, it's not their fault their families are weird.

It is also a tale of survival, and I think that is what makes it more memorable. Augusten is amazingly resilient among this oddball set of characters he finds himself living with, and even though he just wants a normal life, you can't help admire his ability to move past his initial horror and shock at the strange situations he is confronted with, and then you just laugh as he starts to have some fun with it. It is also truly inspiring, as he manages to overcome this less than helpful upbringing, and move on to become one of the most successful, modern authors in America who was recently named one of the fifteen funniest people in America by Entertainment Weekly.

The movie opens this week and has a star-studded cast. The brilliant Annette Bening is his crazy mom, and I think this could be a role to equal her American Beauty performance. Alec Baldwin as his drunken father looks hysterical, and Gwyneth Paltrow and Evan Rachel Wood are his adopted sisters, Hope and Natalie. Brian Cox is the unprofessional, crazy Dr. Finch, and his far too old boyfriend Neil Bookman is played by Joseph Fiennes. Definitely worth checking out.