The Finches Sue Augusten Burroughs

August 22, 2005 8:41 PM

Augusten Burroughs sued for defamation. The family featured in Burroughs' memoir Running With Scissors claims the author cruelly twisted their kindness into abuse to make a quick buck. The contested book is currently being made into a film , with the always entertaining Brian Cox playing the sketchy psychiatrist who adopts the adolescent Burroughs, Joseph Fiennes as the pedophile, Alec Baldwin as the father, and Annette Benning as the bipolar mother. Burroughs has been a long-time contributor to Salon. [This is old news (July 31st) that has only just been widely circulated in the past week.]
posted by ibeji (19 comments total)

I always wondered whether or not he exaggerated details in the book, and now it's clear. These people are even fucking crazier than words can describe.
posted by docpops at 9:00 PM on August 22, 2005

Burrougs states on his site that Scissors came from the journals he religiously kept a a kid. Hope he still has them.
posted by johnj at 9:03 PM on August 22, 2005

Small world. I had his father for a Philosophy course at UMass in the late 80's. I had no idea that Burroughs was a nom de plume.
posted by Cassford at 9:11 PM on August 22, 2005

This is his mother's website.
posted by brujita at 9:30 PM on August 22, 2005

Actually, this is his mother's website. My gosh, what truly dreadful poetry.

Running With Scissors is a crazed and entertaining book. Poor Augusten, if even half the material in it is true.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 9:55 PM on August 22, 2005

A good friend worked on Blackbird by Jennifer Lauck, a chick-lit forerunner to Scissors, which prompted similar outspoken (yet not legally enforced) objections from the catastrophically abusive family members memorialized in print.

My friend and I joked about establishing Rashoman, a publishing imprint and/or cable channel in which a Lauck or a Burroughs presents a narrative and every major figure in that narrative contributes his or her version of the story.

What we soon realized is that reality is almost always dull and shapeless. Both Lauck and Burroughs know -- any good writer knows -- how to use that dull shapelessness to create a satisfying narrative. That's a skill, like floating drywall or intubating a patient. Once a good story's been told, the only thing that can possibly compete is a better story.

Can a drywaller tell a better story than a writer? About as likely as the writer taking a trough of mud and creating a seamless joint.
posted by vetiver at 10:34 PM on August 22, 2005

Which "mother" is that? His birth-mother or the defrocked deceased psychiatrist's wife?
posted by davy at 10:37 PM on August 22, 2005

While reading Running With Scissors, I thought that the lack of lawsuit from the family confirmed their looniness (freeness of spirit, maybe?).

Now that they are, I have to wonder why now, if not the movie (or financial need). Ah, the happy valley.
posted by Busithoth at 10:42 PM on August 22, 2005

Slithy, that's not poetry, it's chopped up bad prose. Not even "prose" really, just "non-verse".

"On the riverbank a raccoon
rummages in the dry stalks
of cut bamboo crackling like flame."

As my dad used to say, "Oh, brother."
posted by davy at 10:44 PM on August 22, 2005

I know "Augusten's" brother (the guy he described as having toured with KISS to design and run their pyrotechnics at 17, and as having Asperger Syndrome, amongst other things) and though he wasn't living at the house, he'd visit his brother from time to time so saw lots of bizarre goings-on. I'm pretty sure he'd be able to pretty much back up much of what was written.
posted by lazywhinerkid at 2:20 AM on August 23, 2005

This lawsuit should be good for another book.
posted by OmieWise at 4:03 AM on August 23, 2005

It's his birth-mother.
posted by brujita at 4:23 AM on August 23, 2005

Aha, Burroughs and I have the same publisher.
posted by gene_machine at 4:33 AM on August 23, 2005

What we soon realized is that reality is almost always dull and shapeless.
What a bowl full of cheer for my morning. You need Jezus.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 4:40 AM on August 23, 2005

Whoa, just because Blackbird was written by a woman it's a "chick-lit" forerunner to a man's book? There's nothing "chick-lit" about Blackbird. The real point of comparison between the two is the real-life "characters" in each of the books taking issue with how the author presented them.
posted by youarejustalittleant at 4:57 AM on August 23, 2005

Robison did submit a statement, saying, "My poetry, prose, and life are about my relationship with God, and I see the entire situation as a rich opportunity for growth, forgiveness and love for every single one of the beautiful people involved."

I think they should throw the book at him just for that line of bullshit.
posted by languagehat at 6:35 AM on August 23, 2005

Dude, that was his MOM not Augusten Burroughs saying that. (I did the same thing when I first read it ;-) jeez, if AB said that, he'd lose all credibility in my book.
Here's the quote in context, and you'll see what I mean:

Margaret Robison, who is not a party to the suit, declined to be interviewed, saying that she is unwilling to discuss the matter "in a worldly way." She lives in Shelburne Falls, where she said she is recovering from health problems as she continues to write.

Robison did submit a statement, saying, "My poetry, prose, and life are about my relationship with God, and I see the entire situation as a rich opportunity for growth, forgiveness and love for every single one of the beautiful people involved."

Annette Bening plays Robison in the movie.
posted by ibeji at 6:50 AM on August 23, 2005

Ah, sorry. Bad reading skills, bad!

*slaps self with copy of Jonathan Livingston Seagull*
posted by languagehat at 7:40 AM on August 23, 2005

languagehat
*slaps self with copy of Jonathan Livingston Seagull*

Sheesh, THAT won't even leave a mark....
posted by Floydd at 1:03 PM on August 23, 2005