russellarbenfox 's review for:

So, Anyway... by John Cleese

4.0

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A wonderful memoir, very nicely (if not beautifully) written, in which John Cleese does two very entertaining and--I think, anyway--intriguing things. First, he tells the story of his life from birth up until the founding of Monty Python's Flying Circus, a story which includes all sorts of wonderful and opinionated asides and observations as Cleese made his way from "middle-middle-lover-middle-class" beginnings through England (and America, and New Zealand) in the 1950s and 1960s. And second, he gives us a portrait of his own very funny, but also very conflicted, often angry, and always inquisitive, doubtful, and reflective mind. John Cleese is a strange man, in every sense of the word, but also, on the basis of this memoir at least, a good one, and very much worth getting to know. (Read more thoughts from me about the book here.)