Never have your dog stuffed and other things ive learned by Alan Alba Memoir journal #1

"Never Have Your Dog Stuffed And other Things I've Learned" by Alan Alba attracted me because of its name but of course like all books I am required to read its turning out to be very interesting. Alba's writing is very straight forward, he gives you the memory, gives a bit of detail, and explains the memory significant impact or meaning without to much relish. The amount of detail is enough to paint a vivid picture and Alba's free thought or explanations make a lot of sense.The first fourth of the book I read was about Alba's childhood from when he was two up to grade school. Alba's early life is one of the strangest sounding expierences I have ever read about, his father is an up and coming actor traveling with a troupe of "ahem" showgirls and other performers along with his wife with a slight mental disorder. Alba vividly describes the shows he saw as a child, from his fathers various stand-up acts, the showgirls uhhhh dances, and the comedian's stand up comedy's. All this exposure to the acting world gives Alba a very unique perspective on things, how every one but these actors are "civilians" and he is an "entertainer" whom understands the inner workings of all these plays and sketches and will one day use them to entertain the "civilians". This strange perspective on things may seem kinda of arrogant but Alba really makes it seem true. When Alba finally enters grade school he immediatly takes the chance to entertain everyone with all the skits he learned over the years, sadly he is regarded as different and made an immediate target for bullying. This Alba concludes is because "Civilians just can't understand when they are ready to be entertained" and he continues to try for a little while but then gives up after he knows nobody's entertained. Its a perspective you could expect from an actors son but its still a very unique perspective for one so young. Another interesting thing that was not mentioned much in this first fourth of the book was the relationship between his mother father and himself. The book starts out with the sentence "my mother didn't try to stab my father till was six". That sentence immediatly tells you something is wrong with the Alba's mother but it was only described a little bit, mentioning a few of his mothers "episodes" And how shes afraid of Alba "growing up". Alba's story is very gripping so far and look forward to reading some more.