- A teenage boy comes of age in the 1970's, sent by his neurotic, pretentious mother to live with a jolly, vulgar psychiatrist and his eccentric extended family.
- The story of how a boy was abandoned by his mother and how he, later, abandoned her. The year he'll be 14, the parents of Augusten Burroughs (1965- ) divorce, and his mother, who thinks of herself as a fine poet on the verge of fame, delivers him to the eccentric household of her psychiatrist, Dr. Finch. During that year, Augusten avoids school, keeps a journal, and practices cosmetology. His mother's mental illness worsens, he takes an older lover, he finds friendship with Finch's younger daughter, and he's the occasional recipient of gifts from an unlikely benefactor. Can he survive to come of age?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
- 1978. Fourteen year old Augusten Burroughs narrates the story of his love/hate relationship with his mother, Deirdre Burroughs. As a child, Augusten loved and wanted to be like his theatrical acting mother, who aspires to be a famous writer, with her person being more renowned than her writing. She is critical of writers in general while not achieving that wanted fame because of not being a gifted enough a writer. Her writing is fueled largely by her manic depression. Augusten's now divorced parents had a turbulent relationship, his alcoholic father, Norman Burroughs, who is now largely out of his life by Norm's own choice. To deal with her mental issues, Deirdre has been seeing therapist Dr. Finch, whose actions are largely motivated by a singular issue. Out of circumstance, Augusten strikes a relationship with Dr. Finch's disparate but completely eccentric family: his quietly nervous wife, Agnes Finch; religiously fanatic eldest daughter Hope; rebellious younger daughter Natalie; and thirty-five year old recently adopted son Neil Bookman, who was and still is one of his patients. In Norm's self-imposed abandonment and Deirdre's own dealings with her unstable mental state, Augusten reluctantly finds in the Finches a surrogate family, far from the "normal" family within which he dreams for himself. But in his relationship with the Finches, Augusten will learn where he wants his mother to fit in his life, and what he has to do for himself to have the life he wants given the cards he was dealt. He will also find that he has a kindred soul who was not obvious to him at first glance.—Huggo
- It is the 70s and Augusten Burroughs (Joseph Cross) is a young gay child who spends hours upholding his mother Deidre Burroughs (Annette Benning) with emotional support as she attempts to forge her career as a poetess. Augustens father Norman Burroughs (Alec Baldwin) is an alcoholic whose relationship with Deidre has eroded to the point that they spend most of their time aggressively attacking each others values and physically attacking each other as well. Augusten connects with each parent in certain ways but most of his time is spent skipping school, dressing up, and doing things like acting as audience to his self-involved mother. When the parents decide to give Augusten to Deidres psychologist Dr. Finch (Brian Cox), the young child must learn to live with a family of misfits whose primary activity seems to be to express their innermost feelings regardless of how it affects those around them. Augusten discovers his homosexuality with Neil Bookman (Joseph Fiennes) another adopted son of Dr. Finch and also befriends Natalie Finch (Evan Rachel Wood) who has issues of her own. Together Augusten and Natalie develop a way of dealing with the crazy environment until they discover a way out.
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