Alan Cumming

I love Alan Cumming. He is charming and witty and irreverent. And honest. I snagged this audio as soon as I saw it, but waited to dip into it until I could get the print book from the library to follow along since it's a book of stories with accompanying photos. The book came into the library yesterday, and I started listening to this last night. Finished it up this morning, and it is absolutely delightful. If you don't do audio, then it would work just as well in the print format, but I show more loved having Cumming tell it to me himself. The audiobook does come with a PDF of the photos, so you can still see the photos without getting the actual print book, but I really enjoyed having both at my disposal.

What Cumming has done is to share selfies that he has taken over the years - both with his cellphone and with cameras with timers - and provide the stories that led to the photo. It will surprise you - the photos are both funny and poignant, eclectic and traditional, bizarre and surreal. The stories will make you laugh out loud and cry. My three favorites are:

"Travels With Honey" - a sort of [Travels With Charlie] if Steinbeck had been bisexual, vegan, and Scottish.

"You Gotta Get Bigger Dreams" - the story of his taking his friend Eddie, who is completely obsessed with Oprah to see her being honored by the Elie Wiesel Foundation.

"Head Down, Eyes Up" - a lovely homage to his dog Honey that made me sob. He lost Honey to cancer after fourteen years, and this hit so close to home as we said goodbye to two of our dearest canine friends of fourteen years just a brief six months ago.

I just cannot recommend this collection highly enough - selfie vignettes! Who would have thunk it?! show less

I love Alan Cumming - his movies, his cabaret shows, his audiobook narrations, his social media presence... So I was very pre-disposed to like this memoir, and I did. It's an interesting follow-up to his first memoir about his abusive father. That experience colors some of his stories in this one, but this is a much more show biz-y, gossip-y book, but one that also provides for some real introspection. That said, I probably liked all the "back stage" stories the best because I can be shallow show more like that. And, of course, I have to recommend the audio of this one because Cumming reads it himself.

3.75 stars show less

Not My Father's Son isn't a typical celebrity tell-all. Instead, Alan Cumming uses his appearance on the genealogical reality show Who Do You Think You Are? as a hook around which to explore his family history: both the mysterious death of his maternal grandfather in 1950s Malaysia, which the show investigated, and his off-camera grapplings with the fall-out of a childhood spent in fear of an abusive and rage-filled father. Cumming is admirably clear-eyed, honest without being self-pitying show more or maudlin, and shows a remarkable ability to turn lemons into lemonade. show less

This was a wonderful memoir, framed around the time Cumming was filming the UK version of 'Who Do You Think You Are?' He goes back and forth in time, recounting the abuse - both mental and physical - he suffered at the hands of his father, and the contemporary story of trying to discover the truth about his maternal grandfather and other family secrets. Cummings' intelligence and wit comes through clearly, as does the pain and alienation brought on by the abuse. It's a very well-done mix of show more "then" and "now," but anyone looking for a juicy celebrity memoir will be disappointed. He only mentions some details of his career in passing. The focus here is on the damage that people can suffer, often in silence, and the redemption to be found in speaking up and speaking out. show less