American On Purpose: The Improbable Adventures Of An Unlikely Patriot (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
To my knowledge, I've never seen this guy on TV. I knew vaguely that he was a talk show host at night. I ran across the random fact that Peter Capaldi was in a band, this guy was in it and wrote about that experience, as well as his own experiences as an alcoholic and struggling performer. So I found the book.I almost put it down after the first chapter, cause he seemed to be a left wing hater. But I soldiered on. The fact that Ferguson and I share a birth year gave me a frame of reference for when things were happening. I found I was really interested in the story (hard to say I "enjoyed" it, as he writes graphically about his pre-sobriety life, and it's not pretty). He owns up straightforwardly to his own faults and failures, and writes lovingly of his parents and older relatives, so I could feel all in all he really was a good guy.If you're interested in the show biz world, or stories of addiction and recovery, you'd be interested in this book. Also: graphic language/situation alert! First I have to say—love the kilt! Great cover. I like watching Craig Ferguson on TV hosting because he comes across as genuine and witty and is buzzing with energy with a great sense of humor. This was not as comical as I would have expected. I had no idea that for much of his life he was an alcoholic and used drugs. I didn’t mind reading about it but it was too much. By the end of reading this I felt like I needed to check into rehab myself. I could’ve used more stories from his sober years in life to balance it all out. I was astounded that once he came clean he discovered he could have fun without alcohol. That’s so sad. I’ve been doing that my whole life; if you are in good company…and good food… it’s easy to have fun. I’m sure many opportunities to enjoy what life has to offer passed him by. I admire him for seeking help and making a change for the better.His descriptions of people and places were amusing: “Scottish people love to dance. Only certain types of dancing, though. The kind that comes with a set of rules and instructions…Organized stamping and clapping or structured reels and skips are what Scots want—God forbid anything involving sexiness or free expression, no fluid or sensual movements, please.”Craig’s father: “rake thin when he was young, but he was tall and good-looking, and at six-one a giant for a Scotsman of his generation. Diamond-blue eyes, white-blond hair that was silver by his thirties, a strong nose, and fabulous teeth, though the teeth were something of a cheat since they were dentures.” His father told him they were knocked out from a motorcycle accident but Craig didn’t believe him. He thought the more likely scenario was “perhaps he was traveling so fast that his poor old gnashers, weakened from no flossing and a lack of fluoride, were sucked out of his mouth by the relative velocity.” It was funny to picture that silliness in my head.According to him, his grandmother was a woman that could not be intimidated and “all were powerless against her bitter scorn…She looked like an overstuffed sofa covered in a floral apron and balanced precariously on minuscule pink fluffy slippers. She had hands like a longshoreman’s and hair like the cold steel of a bayonet, hard and shiny. She was a stringent woman who terrified me as a child, although she became a friend and guide later.”Candid observation: “The noise of New Yorkers going about their business is a hell of a shock to the uninitiated. To this day when I visit New York City it seems to me that half the people on the street are overacting for an unseen audience or they’ve just seen one too many musicals.”He auditioned for a band in a basement recording studio. It was terrifying; “it was like the den of a serial killer. It had low ceilings and red lightbulbs, and there was even a decrepit old dressmaker’s mannequin propped in the stairwell that curved down into the dark damp cellar…The air was moist and heavy with mildew and stale from cigarette smoke.” Creepy.On one particular acid trip he imagined he was being chased by killer ducks. It was kind of funny but mostly dreadful. What a sad way to live life, if you can call that living.He worked on a project with Marie Osmond and thought that he would be oppressed by all the Mormons around him, but that wasn’t the case. “From what I know about that faith, it’s not for me, but I have to say I never met a Mormon I didn’t like. On the set they were all so darned friendly and upbeat and secretly kinky—or so I told myself.” I had to laugh at his end comment.He became a proud protective father. “As I cut the umbilical cord, Milo started to cry and shiver. One of the nurses, a dour Russian woman who had bossed Sascha around a little too much for my liking, said, not unkindly, “Oh, baby, life is hard.” He snapped at her “Shut up. He just got here. He doesn’t need that [crap] yet.”Craig, as a teenager, tried to bluff so others would fear him and think he was tough. “I tried to appear alternately aloof and enigmatically dangerous, which is no easy feat for an anxious, corpulent, farty preteen, but I got by.”
What do You think about American On Purpose: The Improbable Adventures Of An Unlikely Patriot (2009)?
Feels very genuine and conversational. Ferguson is intelligent while still remaining funny.
—Radha
