Alan Cumming’s new memoir, set to publish in October, focuses on his life in Hollywood.
Exciting news for fans of the Tony- and Emmy-winning actor: Canongate has just announced they are set to publish Alan Cumming’s “seriously entertaining” new memoir, Baggage: Tales from a Fully Packed Life, in October 2021.
Where Cumming’s previous memoir, Not My Father’s Son, focused on his childhood, Baggage tackles Cumming’s life in Hollywood, both its high-profile highs and mental lows. Reads the synopsis, in part, “[Through] his struggle with mental health, each failed relationship or encounter with a legend (Liza! X Men! Gore Vidal! Kubrick! Spice Girls!), every bad decision or moment of sensual joy, Cumming shows how every experience—good or bad—has shaped who he is today: a happy, flawed, vulnerable, fearless middle-aged man, with a lot of baggage. Startlingly honest, both poignant and joyous, Baggage shines a light on how to embrace the complicated messiness of life.”
Said Cumming himself, “My inspiration to write [Baggage] was partly in response to the reaction to [Not My Father’s Son], and the idea that I had somehow triumphed over my childhood abuse, or was ‘cured’. No one ever fully recovers from their past. There is no cure for it. You just learn to manage and prioritize it . . . So, in Baggage I want to encourage readers not to buy into the Hollywood ending, while at the same time telling them about my experiences in Hollywood. I want to show my flaws, my joy, my mistakes, all of my baggage.”
[h/t The Bookseller]
