Books like American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot

Reprinted from my website Secure Immaturity:I’m trying to love Craig Ferguson while I can because let’s face it world. . .Craig Ferguson is coming! I’m not one of those intellectual yuppies who hates anything mainstream but there is, admittedly, something really fun about liking something cult or limited in appeal because, well, you are kind of the hip (or hipster) guy or gal who caught on to something early. Craig Ferguson, and his late night talk show The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, is something cult. . .for now. Soon, the man will be in every one’s living room and that, while not any less entertaining, does damage the small world he once inhabited.I’ve felt that Craig Ferguson has been the best talk show host for awhile now. I never deliberately watched him but whenever he was on or I caught an interview with him by accident or because I wasn’t watching a hundred other things, Ferguson always lit up my living/bedroom. He was/is spontaneous, witty, bizarre and odd but never, ever boring. Even David Letterman, who I always held as a late night champion over the Lenos and O’Briens of the world, can get dull from time to time. Ferguson, now a regular fixture at 12:15 on my bedroom television, never disappoints or loses his edge. And the United States is starting to pick up on it.While his ratings appear to be steady and/or rising, Ferguson has been making the rounds and starting to get clout outside the nocturnal crowd. One aspect of this occurrence is his release of American on Purpose, his memoir. Unless your Joan Collins, memoirs aren’t released unless there is some actual interest in the subject at hand and since Ferguson’s star is rising, a book seems like the next logical step in making that star shine brighter and higher in the sky.The book is immensely straightforward. It is bookended by the present day but, like most biographies, starts at childhood and goes right up into the current goings-on. I usually find this approach unbearable in biographies but Ferguson manages to focus more on the people in his life then the events which makes the sometimes standard everyday events seem emotional and interesting. Ferguson has to talk to people every night and engage them and he doesn’;t fail here. Instead of preaching about how a childhood event led him to where he is today he just describes what happened in a simple way and let’s you live in the moment.This approach helps you get through the by the numbers outline of the book. That said, even if the chronology is by the numbers, Ferguson’s life was/is anything but. Having a career in Hollywood can be downright odd because you, as an actor/director/what have you, are judge by the material you are in/present/etc. By ‘celebrity’ standards, Ferguson’s life is fairly dull: a few movies, a few sitcoms, limited mainstream success or appeal and one guaranteed hit in the bag (his current show). By industry standards he is moderately successful and moderately interesting.But Hollywood experience and life experience are two different things. Ferguson’s life, from the economically strapped slums of Scotland, to the busy, fast paced and drug fueled streets of New York to said Hollywood is full of larger then life characters, goings-on, cliques, celebrities of the eras, cultural importance and impact and even near death experiences. Oh and evil, attacking ducks too. Ferguson may have a run of the mill acting career but his life has stories that many would envy and others couldn’t dream of.And most of it isn’t pleasant. Ferguson, while self deprecating throughout, is also brutally honest. Ferguson was an alcoholic, a cocaine addict and a marriage-ender by definition. While always having the ‘heart of gold’, Ferguson was irresponsible, rambunctious and destructive. In many areas of his history he faced death both by starring at the wrong end of a gun (thanks to an angry pimp) or by wishing to jump off a bridge. Graphic (but funny) hallucinations led to weeks of agony and frustration. Ferguson is always willing to make light of his troubles but never endorses them. He makes it clear his life was humorous but wrong. . .and is loving every minute of what he has now.I think people will buy the book thinking it to be a slightly dark, completely hilarious book. Those people will be immensely disappointed. Ferguson manages to be very funny but the humor comes from his experiences and hardly from his meta-observations of theme during their telling. There is no observational humor here. . .just very direct confirmations of previous facts. This is also not a collection of humorous essays. This is a well told but simple biography that might rub people the wrong way. I was definitely expecting something else but wasn’t disappointed by what I did get in the end.American on Purpose is a simple read and highly enjoyable if not, dare I say, life affirming. Sometimes when I think I have things bad I turn the page to the moment Ferguson was chased by psychotic hallucination-formed ducks or when he punches a cop in a drunken stupor. If that doesn’t ’sober’ you up then maybe something else in the book will. Either way: read it.