Augusten Burroughs' powerful memoir, 'Running with Scissors,' pulls back the curtain on a childhood far removed from normalcy. At just twelve years old, Burroughs is thrust into a world of eccentricity and chaos when his mother, a would-be poet, entrusts him to the care of her psychiatrist, whose grandiose delusions rival her own. The psychiatrist's home is a crumbling Victorian house steeped in neglect; it is a place where the absurdity of adults is the norm, including a questionable array of residents and a pedophile who claims the backyard shed as his own. Boundaries dissolve as freely as pills are popped, school is a forgotten concept, and conventional family structure is displaced by a wild cast of characters. Burroughs must navigate this bizarre reality, finding humor amidst the madness, and searching for a sense of self within the anarchy. It is a testament to survival, a young boy's journey to adulthood etched with the scars and the laughter of an exceedingly unusual upbringing.