Bookreporter.com - AMERICAN ON PURPOSE by Craig Ferguson

AMERICAN ON PURPOSE: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot
Craig Ferguson
Harper
Memoir
ISBN: 9780061719547

If you've ever seen or heard Craig Ferguson, one thing is painfully clear immediately: aside from him being incredibly funny, he isn't from around here. Yes, Ferguson is from Scotland, as his very thick accent illustrates. Yet from a very early age, a young Ferguson made it his goal to move to America. Happily, for him and for us, he became an American citizen in early 2008. And although this is joyous news, his road getting here was full of anything but laughs.

It would be very easy for Ferguson to simply put out a laughing book, highlighting the funny bits of his journey from gray and dreary Cumbernauld, Scotland, to the glittering flashbulbs of the paparazzi in sunny Los Angeles. To be sure, there are moments in AMERICAN ON PURPOSE that are laugh-out-loud funny, but ultimately he refuses to gloss over his failures. And in the process of opening himself up so honestly, he shows the spirit of perseverance and dedication required to get through his often challenging life.

Beginning with his tough childhood, doing whatever it took not to get beat up in his rough and tumble school, he found an outlet in punk rock as a drummer. He also found a release from continued failures in numerous liquor bottles and drug stashes. But a trip to New York City in the ’70s with his father opened his eyes to the larger world, and at that moment he realized that he wanted to be an American. Right then and there, he promised his father that one day America would be his home.

Back in Scotland, however, the drinking and the drug usage were taking their toll, leaving a swath of broken hearts and failed ventures in his wake. It would all culminate on a Christmas Day decision to end his life after he was stranded with no way home and no prospects of which to speak. Ironically, it would be a bartender offering a glass of sherry for the holiday that saved his life by getting him so drunk that he forgot to kill himself.

Ferguson is honest about the destructive nature of his ways in those tough days, and he takes the brunt of the blame square on the nose. It would be easy for him to brush aside the situations in the retelling, but he makes it very clear that these were his choices, his cravings and his needs. It was his conscious decision to perform those deeds no matter whom he hurt along the way. This part of Ferguson’s story is a frank discussion of addiction and dependency, and artfully shows the pitfalls of leading such a life.

Thankfully, Ferguson finally cleans up and makes it big in the United States, going from hit television series “The Drew Carey Show” to succeeding comedian Craig Kilborn as the host of “The Late Late Show.” It was on this program that he eulogized each of his parents after they passed away, and it was in those heartfelt and touching moments that the real Craig Ferguson emerged. He recounts the loss of his parents in the book, and the closing chapter about the death of his mother is perhaps the most poignant of all. Within those pages (tinged with grief over his loss), Ferguson realizes that, in his quest to be American, he was losing his grip on what it meant to be Scottish. And it is at this point that he determines he is and rightfully must be both.

AMERICAN ON PURPOSE is an astoundingly good book by perhaps the funniest talk show host on television. And although Ferguson is funny, the book’s narrative is no joke; he knows how to write. His style is very conversational and open, and that helps the reader to easily delve into it. The book will surprise you with its honesty, sadden you with its destructive pattern of behavior, and, as Ferguson always does, make you laugh.

--- Reviewed by Stephen Hubbard

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