He’s one of America’s most recognizable and acclaimed actors–a star on Broadway, an Oscar nominee for The Aviator, and the only person to ever win Emmys for acting, writing, and directing, during his eleven years on M*A*S*H. Now Alan Alda has written a memoir as elegant, funny, and affecting as his greatest performances. “My mother didn’t try to stab my father until I was six,” begins Alda’s irresistible story. The son of a popular actor and a loving but mentally ill mother, he spent his early childhood backstage in the erotic and comic world of burlesque and went on, after early struggles, to achieve extraordinary success in his profession. Yet Never Have Your Dog Stuffed is not a memoir of show-business ups and downs. It is a moving and funny story of a boy growing into a man who then realizes he has only just begun to grow. It is the story of turning points in Alda’s life, events that would make him what he is–if only he could survive them. From the moment as a boy when his dead dog is returned from the taxidermist’s shop with a hideous expression on his face, and he learns that death can’t be undone, to the decades-long effort to find compassion for the mother he lived with but never knew, to his acceptance of his father, both personally and professionally, Alda learns the hard way that change, uncertainty, and transformation are what life is made of, and true happiness is found in embracing them. Never Have Your Dog Stuffed, filled with curiosity about nature, good humor, and honesty, is the crowning achievement of an actor, author, and director, but surprisingly, it is the story of a life more filled with turbulence and laughter than any Alda has ever played on the stage or screen.
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"I grew up a fan of Alan Alda's on Mash. As I got older, I hated the films he directed, but loved his turns as a villian. He was a surprise in a dreadful film called Cries at Midngiht (I think that was the title) and especially in Crimes and Misdeameanors, a film he stole from it's director Woody Allen. In both of those films, it was his character's pompositys that Alda punctured with obvious relish. In this book, that pomposity is on display, but also here is that same relish. It is no surprise to anyone why Alda is still a force in making great films and writing, because he does have a very original wit as well as a willingness to take on any subject, even his own cherished beliefs and make comic hash out of them. This book wasn't perfect, few autobiographies are, but it still very readable because of Alda's personality."
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Paul (4 out of 5 stars)