Not My Father's Son

Alan Cumming's memoir, which focuses on his relationship with his father, is absolutely stunning. It's heartbreaking and hard to read, absolutely devastating at times. But Alan Cumming is a man of grace and kindness, and his writing positively pulses with it. The book is also funny and heartwarming and forgiving.

Cumming flips back and forth between two timelines. He explores his childhood, growing up with an abusive father. Interwoven with this is his time filming an episode of Who Do You Think You Are, during which he learned about the life and death of his maternal grandfather. Cumming does an amazing job jumping back and forth between the two timelines, allowing them to inform and enrich each other.

Ultimately, this book is Cumming's journey to acceptance. He learns more about his family, lets that inform who he is, discards the things he doesn't want. The most amazing thing is his ability to forgive his father for everything he put him through and continued to put him through, beyond his dying day.

I'm so glad I read this memoir. Alan Cumming is one of those actors who seems to have been in everything. I've seen him in this and that over the years. This book made me want to seek out more of his work. He's a bottomless well of kindness, which this book made clear. And now that I can look back and see how that informs his performances, I just want to experience more of them.

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