Audiobook Review: Nevertheless: A Memoir by Alec Baldwin
Nevertheless: A Memoir by Alec Baldwin
Publisher: Harper
Release Date: April 4, 2017
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
One of the most accomplished and outspoken actors today chronicles the highs and lows of his life in this beautifully written, candid memoir.
Over the past three decades, Alec Baldwin has established himself as one of Hollywood’s most gifted, hilarious, and controversial leading men. From his work in popular movies, including Beetlejuice, Working Girl, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Cooler, and Martin Scorsese’s The Departed to his role as Jack Donaghy on Tina Fey’s irreverent series 30 Rock—for which he won two Emmys, three Golden Globes, and seven Screen Actors Guild Awards—and as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, he’s both a household name and a deeply respected actor.
In Nevertheless, Baldwin transcends his public persona, making public facets of his life he has long kept private. In this honest, affecting memoir, he introduces us to the Long Island child who felt burdened by his family’s financial strains and his parents’ unhappy marriage; the Washington, DC, college student gearing up for a career in politics; the self-named “Love Taxi” who helped friends solve their romantic problems while neglecting his own; the young soap actor learning from giants of the theatre; the addict drawn to drugs and alcohol who struggles with sobriety; the husband and father who acknowledges his failings and battles to overcome them; and the consummate professional for whom the work is everything. Throughout Nevertheless, one constant emerges: the fearlessness that defines and drives Baldwin’s life.
Told with his signature candor, astute observational savvy, and devastating wit, Nevertheless reveals an Alec Baldwin we have never fully seen before.
Alec Baldwin starts his book with his early childhood and ends in the present day, all the way up to the election of the current president. I thought he spent too much time on his childhood. I wanted him to hurry up and get to the good stuff.
Once he finally did, I was greatly rewarded. He included details about his marriage to Kim Bassinger and their divorce, the angry voicemail he left his daughter Ireland, his physical altercations with the paparazzi and more. I loved it. Dishing behind the scenes dirt is the primary reason I read celebrity memoirs. Baldwin is definitely not lacking self-confidence. He apologizes for most of his bad behavior but it’s usually of the, “I’m sorry but…”variety of apology.
Baldwin pulls no punches when talking about Hollywood insiders and fellow celebrities. I have a feeling he burned a lot of bridges with this book and couldn’t care less. One example is when he talks about being forced out of The Hunt for Red October and replaced with Harrison Ford. “One thing [Ford] does not have is an Oscar, which must frustrate, if not burden him, after his long career…Ford is “a little man, short, scrawny, and wiry, whose soft voice sounds as if it’s coming from behind a door.” Other times, he is less subtle, calling people assholes and the like outright. I listened to the audiobook, mostly in the car, so unfortunately I didn’t write down anymore examples. I wish I would have because they were great.
Baldwin narrates the audiobook himself and is fantastic. His velvety voice was made for voiceovers. I was surprised that he is also really good at doing impressions. He did the voices for all of the actors he quoted and they all sounded just like whichever celebrity it was.
I recommend Nevertheless to anyone who loves memoirs of famous people like I do. It is highly satisfying and you will not be disappointed.
