Alan Alda Never Have Your Dog Stuffed and Other Things I’ve Learned

Never Have Your Dog Stuffed and Other Things I've Learned

Alan Alda

Random House, Sep 2005, $24.95, 240 pp.

ISBN: 1400064090

Highly regarded actor Alan Alda provides a deep autobiography, but not the usual kiss and tell scintillating tale of sin city. Instead his superbly written memoir grips readers, starting with the stunning opening comment that "My mother didn't try to stab my father until I was 6 " and never lets up until he finishes his memoirs. Readers will gain an understanding of what has motivated Mr. Alda through his use of humor, charm, and the macabre, such as the title of his book, referring to sending the family's deceased pet Rhapsody to be stuffed by a taxidermist. Those readers seeking a Hollywood expos , need to search elsewhere as Mr. Alda has been married to the same woman for almost fifty years without referring to any side trysts. Even his long movie and TV career, except for some intriguing insights into M*A*S*H, is a quick glimpse with external anecdotes to remind him how fleeting fame is. Instead he concentrates on the major personal events like polio treatment, or touring as a kid with his parents, and his father being a star of burlesque, so as a kid he traveled with the strippers, but especially his mom's schizophrenia, that haunts him today with a fear he will join her in her dark room. This autobiography is one of the best out there as Mr. Alda lays out his soul, including those demons eating at it, but never points the finger at his peers.

Harriet Klausner