I’m not a huge nonfiction fan. I find autobiographies sometimes crass and needlessly over the top, especially if they’re written by celebrities. However, this autobiography by Bryan Cranston has exceeded my expectations.
This one found its way into my hands via my husband. He’s also a reader, and sometimes after reading a book he slides it over to my TBR—to be read—stack by my bed and says, “You have to read this.” I was a little unnerved, but only because Bryan Cranston’s serious face was staring at me from my bedside table, subconsciously judging me for not reading him right away. I couldn’t even flip the book over because the back of the book is Walter White—his character from the TV show Breaking Bad—grimacing at me. So I finally picked this one up to read.
Wow. Cranston lays out his life story not in chapters but in characters. He goes through all the different roles in his life—from Son to Flea Marketeer to Dad to Producer. Some roles only take up a page or two, like the time he failed at being a newspaper delivery boy, but other parts take up more time, like his time filming on Malcolm in the Middle and Breaking Bad. He recounts his time growing up with a distant father and an alcoholic mother, his two-year cross-country motorcycle trek with his brother, his various auditions for TV and commercial roles (like when he lied about knowing how to repel down a mountain and had to quickly learn how), and how he eventually became a name in the acting world. The storyline is quick, the stories are moving—some hilarious and some emotional—and his insight to the acting world is beyond what I’ve heard other actors talk about.
Next to Lauren Graham’s book—Talking as Fast as I Can—this book is one of the top of my biography/autobiography list. Well done, Bryan Cranston!
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