Never Have Your Dog Stuffed

And Other Things I've Learned

By: Alan Alda

Narrated by: Marc Cashman

Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

He's one of America's most recognizable and acclaimed actors - a star on Broadway, an Oscar nominee for The Aviator, and the only person to ever win Emmys for acting, writing, and directing, during his 11 years on M*A*S*H. Now Alan Alda has written a memoir as elegant, funny, and affecting as his greatest performances.

"My mother didn't try to stab my father until I was 6," begins Alda's irresistible story. The son of a popular actor and a loving but mentally ill mother, he spent his early childhood backstage in the erotic and comic world of burlesque and went on, after early struggles, to achieve extraordinary success in his profession.

Yet Never Have Your Dog Stuffed is not a memoir of show-business ups and downs. It is a moving and funny story of a boy growing into a man who then realizes he has only just begun to grow.

It is the story of turning points in Alda's life, events that would make him what he is, if only he could survive them.

From the moment as a boy when his dead dog is returned from the taxidermist's shop with a hideous expression on his face, and he learns that death can't be undone, to the decades-long effort to find compassion for the mother he lived with but never knew, to his acceptance of his father, both personally and professionally, Alda learns the hard way that change, uncertainty, and transformation are what life is made of, and true happiness is found in embracing them.

Never Have Your Dog Stuffed, filled with curiosity about nature, good humor, and honesty, is the crowning achievement of an actor, author, and director, but surprisingly, it is the story of a life more filled with turbulence and laughter than any Alda has ever played on the stage or screen.

©2005 Alan Alda (P)2005 Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A brief but entertaining autobiography tempered with humility and a depth rarely found in celebrity memoirs." (Publishers Weekly)

It's okay that Alda didn't perform this

I was, at first, disheartened not to hear the distinct voice of Mr. Alda, but Marc Cashman does a more than servicable and effective performance to already great material.

Amazing!

I was amazed at how good this book was. He is not self-serving as most celebrities are and he actually has quite a bit of insight into things. It grabbed me at the start and kept me interested.

Classic and Heartwarming

What a wonderful look inside one of the best actors of our time.

Insightful, will make you smile

This book saved me a trip to the taxidermist!

Alan Alda has always represented one of the good guys for me. M*A*S*H is an institution spanning several generations that will live on forever (thank-you syndication) and Hawkeye Pierce an institution to M*A*S*H, synonomous with laughter and a maybe even a little morality sprinkled in for good measure.

In the role of this character, I've always felt Alda transcended acting. With Hawkeye Pierce, he was re-acting to the situation in Korea, and this is where the separation can be made.

Of course this only represents a portion of his career, he's played many roles both big and small, in movies and in theatre and also found plenty of success as a writer along the way.

NHYDS is a solid and insightful view of Alda's journey and is sure to have you laughing out loud more than a few times. You'll respect both the honesty as well as the modesty in his recounting of events and most likely, as others have commented, just wish that Alda himself had done the narration for this unabridged version.

Finally, the advice is sage and sure to be a revelation to many: Never have your dog stuffed!

How about the hamster?

Maybe freeze-dried....

Not Bad but…

I usually prefer unabridged books but in this case the abridged version is better. The reason it is better is not the abridgement but the narrator. The guy narrating this book is ok, but when Alda reads it he gives it much more life. Alda is a bit full of himself, but what do you expect from an actor's "autobiography?" If you haven't already bought this version I suggest you get the abridged version narrated by Alan Alda indstead. I have both and that one is better by far, unless you don't like Alda's voice.

Cure for insomnia

This is the only audio book that I never finished ~ couldn't take anymore. Boring beyond belief. And I like Alan Alda.

It Seems Everyone Bought This Product By Accident

The book is a fantastic memoir - funny, clever and engaging. But reading through the reviews, it looks like everyone here bought this book assuming that Alan Alda would be narrating it. Including me. Don't buy this version. The one where Alda reads it himself is infinitely better.

Introspective Drivel

Couldn't get past chapter 5. What a bunch of hooey! Maybe it's better when Alda narrates. I doubt it.

Disappointing

The reader of this book tried to imitate Alan Alda's voice, and it was very annoying. I had a hard time getting through the book because of the narration. The book itself was disappointing, as I believe Alan Alda has much more depth than this book portrays.

mildly engaging

Despite other listeners' negative reviews, I had some expectations of entertainment from this book. However, I found the story to be somewhat thin and repetitive, with the author a little whiny (so you had a bad childhood - get over it already and move on with your life!). I don't think a different reader (or Alan himself) could have breathed much more life into this stuffed dog.