Never Have Your Dog Stuffed

[swing-set.livejournal.com]

...so Alan Alda's biography (is out)has been out for ages.

The Telegraph said: "The irritating title comes from the fact that, as a boy, Alan Alda was so upset when his dog died that his parents had the animal stuffed. Unfortunately the taxidermist gave the dog a terrifying snarl, which meant people backed out of the room at the sight of it. From this, Alda concludes that we should not try to preserve the past - a slightly odd premise for an autobiography, but then this is a slightly odd book. Mike Nichols once told Alda, "You're insane", and one can see what he meant. He mentions "hypomanic" episodes, followed by depressive comedowns which he treats with Zoloft. He is also much given to wild enthusiasms. As a boy, he was so keen on Roman Catholicism that he took communion every day, until he suddenly decided he could not believe in transubstantiation and stopped entirely. He must be exhausting company. He credits his wife, Arlene, with teaching him 'to live in a world that has actual people in it and not just a string of audiences', but even so you feel he has not quite got the hang of normal life."

Has anyone read it yet? Any good?