Never Have Your Dog Stuffed

If you're looking for a dishy tell-all book about Hollywood celebrity, you won't find it here. The author has made a career playing stalwart fellows, and his memoirs are no exception. Narrator Marc Cashman is an excellent fit for this book. His voice is amiable, conversational, and breezy, and he tells Alda's tales with nary a wink or a nod. Cashman reads each word perfectly, and he gets almost every mood right. He does his best work, though, when it comes to the jokes. Cashman's voice is light and expressive, qualities that help him set up each situation and nail the punch line. He complements Alda's style and produces a very worthwhile read. R.I.G. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

September 1, 2005
"My mother didn't try to stab my father until I was six," actor and author Alan Alda writes at the beginning of his autobiography. The child of a well-known actor, Alda (born Alphonso D'Abruzzo) spent his early years on the road with a burlesque troupe. The time spent on the stage wings, watching his father perform, made a profound impact on the youngster, igniting a desire to entertain others that has stayed with him his entire life. Just as profound was his mother's losing battle with mental illness; Alda spent much of his adult life attempting to reconcile his resentment of her outbursts and unmanageable behavior coupled with her unbridled enthusiasm for life and encouragement. Fueled by a desire to learn and constantly question, Alda carves out his own path; he marries and starts a family while continuing to act and write. His enthusiasm for new experiences-improv, musical theater, television, film-enabled him to grow as an artist, resulting in better jobs. (Alda discussed his most famous role, as Hawkeye Pierce on M*A*S*H*, in 1985's The Last Days of M*A*S*H*.) Humble to a fault, Alda spends more time discussing his formative years than he does on his Emmies and Oscar nominations, which he glosses over. A significant chunk of the final third of the book is devoted to an epiphany Alda had after a health scare in Chile. It runs a bit long, but Alda's conversational style keeps the story on track. It's a brief but entertaining autobiography tempered with humility and a depth rarely found in celebrity memoirs.