Not My Father's Son

I haven't actually seen that many things that Alan Cumming has been in, though I do love the roles I've seen him perform (and I kinda want to see more of them now). I do love a celebrity memoir, but this was different than many I've read - it was laser-focused on unraveling the lives of two men and their effect on Cumming's life: Tommy Darling, the grandfather whom he never met, who died young, having never returned home to his family after his service in WWII; and Alan's angry, abusive (and later, estranged) father.

This book was so good. Cumming's writing is great, and he knows how to weave a story you want to keep reading. He alternates between his childhood and middle age, interconnecting his experiences of his father's manipulation and violence, while participating in a BBC genealogical TV episode that helped him discover the truth of his grandfather's post-war experience with what we would now call PTSD. It's not a particularly light read, but Cumming is ultimately hopeful throughout.

CW: emotional and physical abuse, child abuse, suicide, mental illness