A Family Affair

This is not your typical celebrity memoir.

“All I know is that I am the product of all the experiences I have had, good and bad, and if I am in a happy place in my life (as I truly am), then I can have no regrets about any of the combination of events and circumstances that have led me to the here and now.”

Not my Father’s Son is the story of Alan Cumming’s time filming Who Do You Think You Are? in the summer of 2010. He went on the show to discover the truth behind the mysterious disappearance and eventual death of his maternal grandfather. In the days leading up to his filming his father reaches out to him with a deathbed confession that wreaks havoc on Alan’s emotional state. Throughout the memoir are flashbacks to Cumming’s abusive childhood at the hands of his father as well as other personal anecdotes.
To tell you too much about the grandfather’s death or the father’s confession would ruin what made this one such a page turner. Even though he writes about several heavy subjects there is a lot of humor and levity in his writing; Cumming comes across as a genuine guy whose world was turned upside down and he came out on the other side.
Obviously, anyone who gets selected to film Who Do You Think You Are? is a celebrity, and the book opens with Alan hosting an AmFar event in Cannes, but it never felt like I was reading a book written by a well-known actor.

This is a compelling read that I wholeheartedly recommend you reading!