Never Have Your Dog Stuffed Book

He's one of America's most recognisable and acclaimed actors - a star on "Broadway" an Oscar nominee for "The Aviator" and the only person to ever win Emmys for acting writing and directing during his eleven years on MASH. Now Alan Alda has written a memoir as elegant funny and affecting as his greatest performances. 'My mother didn't try to stab my father until I was six ' begins Alan Alda's irresistible story. The son of a popular actor and a loving but mentally ill mother he spent his early childhood backstage in the erotic and comic world of burlesque and went on after early struggles to achieve extraordinary success in his profession. Yet "Never Have Your Dog Stuffed" is not a memoir of show business ups and downs. It is a moving and funny story of a boy growing into a man who then realizes he has only begun to grow. It is the story of turning points in his life events that would make him what he is - if only he could survive them.From the moment as a boy when his dead dog is returned from the taxidermist's shop with a hideous expression on his face and he learns that death can't be undone to the decades-long effort to find compassion for the mother he lived with but never knew to his acceptance of his father in him personally and professionally he learns the hard way that change uncertainty and transformation are what life is made of and the good life is made of welcoming them. "Never Have Your Dog Stuffed" filled with curiosity about nature good humour and honesty is the crowning achievement of an actor author and director but surprisingly it is the story of a life more filled with turbulence and laughter than any he's ever played on the stage or screen.Read More