I'm five years older than Baldwin.
I remember when I used to see him in the nineties, I always thought, "Now, there's a guy who's got it all going on. He's in the movies making gobs of money, he's married to a goddess." When I'd hear him talk about his marriage to Kim Bassinger, he was always funny. He reminded me of my brother.
I was genuinely shocked when he and Bassinger split up. Then his first book came out.
In those days I would go lie on the floor of my kid's bedroom and read him a story. Then while he fell asleep, I would lie there and read something for myself. It was there on the bedroom floor that I read Baldwin's first book.
I could not believe what I was reading.
It was so different from my imaginings about his life that it reminded me of the old TS Elliot poem that says, "Between the idea and the reality, falls the shadow."
In that book, I read about his agonizing love for his child, then i looked over at my kid quietly sleeping, and bonded with Baldwin. When I finished the book, I actually went back and read it again, like driving by a gut wrenching wreck then going around the block and cruising it again to see if it was as horrendous as you'd thought. (it was.)
This book is very different from that one. This is the Big View of his life from the beginning till now.
But the real hero of this book isn't Baldwin. The real hero of this book is Baldwin's father.
Baldwin's father was a guy with six kids who basically worked himself to death trying to propel them all to something better than he had, which is what every parent who's worth a damn wants. But he was an idealistic, self-sacrificing person who was a real bedrock of civilization sort of guy. He was so idealistic that in June of 1968 he rounded up his six kids and drove them to Robert Kennedy's funeral.
While they were standing in line at the funeral a wandering radio announcer shoved a microphone in a young Alec Baldwin's face and asked him if he would pray for Senator Kennedy.
Baldwin then recited the "Hail Mary" prayer on the radio for Robert Kennedy. Millions of New Yorkers must have heard it.
The weird thing is earlier tonight I was talking to my son, now twenty, who is taking an American History class in college. He looked up at me out of the blue and asked, "Is 1968 the year you're always going on about?"
I said yes.
He said, "It says here 1968 was a year when crises came so quickly that it seemed as if the fabric of society itself was dissolving."
I then told him, "The day Robert Kennedy died I remember thinking that the whole idea of America, a place where all these different kinds of people are trying to live together, might not workout. It just might not be possible. I was a Junior High kid thinking that on my own!"
Then I went in and opened Baldwin's book and read the story about Alec Baldwin saying Hail Mary for Robert Kennedy on the radio.
These are the publicly shared moments that make us a community.
This is an extremely American book and a story shaped by its time. Baldwin's father was a tragic, heroic man it would be as hard to forget as Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman." He never managed to lift his family completely out of poverty but he died trying. Even more poignant, he didn't live to see any of the success of Baldwin or his siblings.
All I can tell you is this is a book I'm glad I read..
In a way I think it's stupid to write a review of a book by a huge celebrity, but my understanding is that so many of these bad reviews were written by people who dislike Baldwin because of his politics that I decided to do it anyway. I live in the South but I'm blue to the bone. True Blue.
About fifteen years ago, I told a friend I intend to go to my grave a Bobby Kennedy democrat and I meant it. Baldwin's dad was a Bobby Kennedy democrat too, and it's for him I really wrote this review. It seems like the least I can do..
Thanks for reading this.
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About the author
Primo funny bone!
Alec Balwin's an accomplished actor and story teller. He's also got a real funny bone that makes for some excellent memoirs in this book.
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- ScholarlySpriteReviewed in Canada on September 24, 2018
Entertaining and thought provoking
Format: KindleVerified Purchase - DAVID BURNReviewed in the United Kingdom on September 20, 2017
Excellent Autobiography.
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase - Cornelia C MorselliReviewed in Australia on January 20, 2019
Great read
Format: KindleVerified Purchase - mrs jayne reynoldsReviewed in the United Kingdom on July 5, 2017
Four Stars
Format: KindleVerified Purchase - Linda PfeifferReviewed in Canada on January 5, 2019
Brilliantly talented but humanly flawed
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
