 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?