Not My Father's Son

This review first appeared on Addicted to Media.

I adore Alan Cumming. I adored him by the time we met him as Nightcrawler in X-Men 2 and I loved him as Desrae in The Runaway. There was no doubt when I learned he had narrated his own memoirs that I was going to rush out and listen to them.

Not My Father’s Son is the story of Alan Cumming’s life from his early days in Scotland to his success as a stage and screen actor. Mostly, it is the story of a small and vulnerable child and his abusive and violent father. Simply from the title of Cumming’s memoir, I knew that it would be this type of story and I hoped that Cumming would emerge triumphant at the end of the book but what I did not expect was his grace.

Throughout his memoir, Cumming relates the most harrowing of encounters with dignity and integrity, never putting his father down as such but never, ever apologising for his father’s actions.

As disturbing as it is at times, Not My Father’s Son is an inspiring and uplifting tale, the story of how one man emerged from an abusive background to find himself and choose his path. He also happened, along the way, to become one of the most loved of British stage and screen actors.

I give Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming a superb five out of five stars and would highly recommend listening to the audiobook version, narrated by Alan himself, on Audible.