Not My Father’s Son by Alan Cummings

HarperAudio | Memoir | 10/07/2014 

Alan Cumming examines the violent and abusive childhood that nearly sent his adult life off course while on a journey to uncover a family secret on the reality TV show  Who Do You Think You Are? Just when Cumming thinks he has a handle on all his family secrets, his estranged father calls and drops a big one.

This silver fox actor is known for playing eccentric characters. I  know Cumming best from his role as Eli Gold on The Good Wife (He was also in X2).  At the time I had no idea he was Scottish but by the time I finished this audiobook the thought of him with an American accent seemed strange.

Cumming is a veteran stage and theater actor and I believe his experience telling and performing stories enabled him to create a memoir that reads more like a literary drama. Underneath his glamorous jet-setting lifestyle, Cumming is still very much connected to the self-conscious frightened boy working the land with his tyrant of a father during the final era of big Scottish Estates. Like Cumming says in the book–think Downton Abbey but in the 70’s.

Cumming is very close and protective of his mother and brother who also survived his father’s abuse. You can hear the affection in the audiobook, which I don’t need to tell you is great because it’won two Audie Awards .  Cumming’s voice is full of bravado and his Scottish brogue glides rhythmically over the words.

I watched some of Cumming’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are ? and I can tell he used the episode as a reference to help him write the book. He uses some of the same descriptions and jargon.  It’s certainly interesting watching the episode knowing all the things that were happening in his life off camera.

I listened to this on Scribd and it recommended me Tommy’s Tale, a novel Cummings wrote two years before this book. If you’ve read Not My Father’s Son it’s easy to see where he draws his inspiration from.