The paperback edition of this autobiography looks slim, but don't be fooled: its 235 pages are packed with striking anecdotes and the philosophical musings of a highly intelligent and sensitive man with very much his own unique outlook on life. The quick tongue and passionate humanism of Hawkeye in M*A*S*H is, it seems, mirrored in his most famous interpreter - and that's not always the case with actors, as we all know. Alda doesn't plod through for the sake of plodding - I'm sure fans of particular projects of his, particularly the films post-M*A*S*H, will be frustrated that they may get barely a mention, if that; the obligatory chapter on M*A*S*H itself is not the most interesting one in the book by any means. Frankly, I thought the stories of Alda's childhood - standing in the wings of burlesque shows and being petted by the half-naked chorus girls; a bout with polio and some truly horrendous treatments for it; his difficult relationships with both his parents (his mother was schizophrenic; his father, the actor Robert Alda, was both inspiration and competition) - are the most compelling. Alda has a knack for the aphorism ("Moderation in everything, including moderation") - but he's not superficial in the way aphoristic writers often are. Some readers might find him a little on the didactic side (see his subtitle) but his apparently genuine humility defuses that.
