Running with Scissors: A Synopsis Augusten Burroughs’ Running with Scissors is a memoir retelling Burroughs’ rather eventful life between the ages of nine and seventeen. The story begins with a description of his mother, Deirdre, getting ready in the bathroom to leave for the night. Burroughs expresses the feelings of abandonment that he often faces when she leaves, and as the story unfolds, he reveals his father’s alcoholism as well as the constant, usually violent, arguments that take place between