Sound Commentary - Your Wise Guide to Audiobooks and Audio Book Reviews

Stage (The Odd Couple in Scotland), film (The Big Tease, Saving Grace with Brenda Blethyn) and television actor (The Drew Carey Show), musician, standup comedian, filmmaker, writer, television talk show host Craig Ferguson's reading of his autobiography is charming, earnest, revealing, funny and sad. The memoir is also honest, genuine and riveting, very like he appears on his late night talk show.

Ferguson was born in Scotland, third of four children to very loving, patient and understanding parents, grew up in Glasgow, feared and hated school, where corporal punishment ruled, and dropped out at 16 with few regrets. He then played drums in various punk rock bands and worked other odd jobs, but mainly he drank lots of alcohol and took lots of drugs for the next ten plus years. He describes in detail his alcoholism and drug addiction and how he spiraled to almost total destruction. Eventually rehab works for him and he has been, he says, sober for at least the last 15 plus years.

He hope his blunt story will help others confront their addictions. He married three times (the third is the absolute final one!) and he has a young son he adores. Ferguson is a compulsive perfectionist at work, but he is also gracious in crediting all the people who helped him along the way and on his way out of alcoholism and to the success he has achieved. Why do some recover and others not? His memoir suggests that there is hope out there for any addiction with decent available medical care and rehabilitation facilities. He carefully explains why he left, yet still loves, Scotland and why he became an American citizen. This is a must for Ferguson fans and those who wonder where the increasingly popular late night talk show host came from. Ferguson's reading is straightforward, not flip, breathlessly paced at times but his reading very much reflects his life. Adorable photo of Ferguson in Red/white/and blue kilt on the package cover!

Ferguson, Craig. American on Purpose. The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot. Read by the author. 6 CDs. 7.5 hrs. Blackstone Audio. 2009. 978-1-4332-9499-0. $55.00. Vinyl binder; contents, author/reader notes. *SA

By Jean Palmer

Jean Palmer was a librarian in a public library, then a librarian/educator at the largest private high school library in the US. She also wrote and edited audiobook reviews at KLIATTand many other national and local newspapers and magazines. She is, of course, an audiobook fanatic and, along with Fran Levitov, a founding co-editor of SoundCommentary.com.