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A review by carolpk
Never Have Your Dog Stuffed: And Other Things I've Learned by Alan Alda
3.0
Before reading this book I knew little about Alan Alda. Of course I was one of the millions who welcomed him into my living room each week as he portrayed Hawkeye on M.A.S.H. Later, went the lights went off and Alda went on to other things, I’d see his warm face from time to time, but never paid much attention to his career.
Our book group chose this, a bit different than most memoirs we have read before. Memoirs in themselves can be sketchy, just giving a bit of a life but not the whole picture. Alda’s promised something just by its title. One of the group said,”Gee, I thought this was going to be funny” as he read the opening sentence and finds Alda’s mother trying to stab his father when he was only six years old. This along with a life in burlesque, a mother with mental illness and a father who was distant, certainly isn’t funny but does give some basis to the man Alda becomes.
It’s not all horror though and some parts are downright funny, even the part of the dog being stuffed. You wonder throughout just who Alda really wants to be; actor, writer, activist? And as he tells you just this much, you want him to tell you more. There’s a whole lot missing about his father (maybe another story, another day), and lots missing about his wife and children, though the love for them comes through strongly.
I really liked the last chapter called Golden Time. Alda describes how the term is used on movie sets, that after a crew has worked twelve straight hours, they go into overtime where every hour is worth two. Alda, after a close call with death, realizes what Golden Time really means. If I take one thing away from this book, Golden Time would be it. I’ll keep in mind his parting advice, “whatever you do, for God’s sake, don’t stuff your dog”.
I’d never have picked this up but for book group. I thank them all the time for their choices. I always learn something from the book but I learn more from listening to the group, their opinions, their stories, their take on the book we’ve read.
I wouldn’t say this is the best book I’ve ever read but I am glad I read it. It gives me new respect for a man who started his life as Alfonzo Joseph D’Abruzzo and one I knew only as Hawkeye.
Our book group chose this, a bit different than most memoirs we have read before. Memoirs in themselves can be sketchy, just giving a bit of a life but not the whole picture. Alda’s promised something just by its title. One of the group said,”Gee, I thought this was going to be funny” as he read the opening sentence and finds Alda’s mother trying to stab his father when he was only six years old. This along with a life in burlesque, a mother with mental illness and a father who was distant, certainly isn’t funny but does give some basis to the man Alda becomes.
It’s not all horror though and some parts are downright funny, even the part of the dog being stuffed. You wonder throughout just who Alda really wants to be; actor, writer, activist? And as he tells you just this much, you want him to tell you more. There’s a whole lot missing about his father (maybe another story, another day), and lots missing about his wife and children, though the love for them comes through strongly.
I really liked the last chapter called Golden Time. Alda describes how the term is used on movie sets, that after a crew has worked twelve straight hours, they go into overtime where every hour is worth two. Alda, after a close call with death, realizes what Golden Time really means. If I take one thing away from this book, Golden Time would be it. I’ll keep in mind his parting advice, “whatever you do, for God’s sake, don’t stuff your dog”.
I’d never have picked this up but for book group. I thank them all the time for their choices. I always learn something from the book but I learn more from listening to the group, their opinions, their stories, their take on the book we’ve read.
I wouldn’t say this is the best book I’ve ever read but I am glad I read it. It gives me new respect for a man who started his life as Alfonzo Joseph D’Abruzzo and one I knew only as Hawkeye.