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Books

A misery memoir from Alan Cumming that's surprisingly thoughtful

A review of Not My Father's Son, by Alan Cumming. It's an autobiography that pits a kindly grandfather against a cruel father

15 November 2014

9:00 AM

15 November 2014

9:00 AM

Not My Father’s Son Alan Cumming

Canongate, pp.290, £16.99, ISBN: 9780062225061

Misery loves company. Anyone who doubts this old adage should pop into their local bookshop, because besides celebrity chefs and Fifty-Shades-of-Grey-style erotica, what keep the tills ringing are misery memoirs. The shelves are groaning with them. Their titles can vary from the merely toe-curling (Cry Silent Tears) to the queasily exploitative (Please, Daddy, No), but even if the names of the characters vary, all these books share the same basic plot.

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