Just this Wednesday I found myself up all night with Alan Cumming, not in the Biblical sense but certainly in the autobiographical sense. I had just been gifted a copy of this book by a friend and started to read it just before bedtime. Found myself in Alan Time shortly thereafter.And what a place to be. Was not quite sure what was going to happen next and I found myself boggling at the notion this was not fiction...
These were the details of a life well lived. Not always in the way you would wish anyone to have to endure but by God it was a life lived in the moment, poignantly humane. People throw around the description "beautiful and brave" with no regard for diminishing its accuracy but this story warrants it. It is pointed out in some of the cover blurbs, from Stephen Fry to Scotland On Sunday, and these are not just luvey chummy compliments, barely strong enough to defend themselves, they are right on the money.
Alan Cumming's memoir is a fantastic read. Well written, page turningly engaging and a celebration of humanity with all its flaws. This old world of ours is so full of tears at times I believe its a wonder we do not all drown. Instead somehow we learn to swim in theses salty seas of our own making, all waving, not drowning. Alan Cumming's fearlessly recounts the details of a fearful childhood, from the perspective of the older child speaking for the one he was. It is a spirited account of a traumatic time, shot through with a cheeky humour that just refuses to give into shame, while preserving the innocent expectations of any human child. You will read this and you will want to reach into the pages and shield the child he was from the cruel blows inflicted by the one who surely should have been willing to take those blows on his account, not bloody dish them out.What that poor wee boy had to endure, him and his brother Tom, its heartbreaking. Even to recall it, to rewrite those events must have been so painful and yet here they are; Sharing.Not in the grotesque current world use of the word, so undermined by endless wiffle waffle of reality television but one that will encourage and in the very best sense of the word; illuminate.
