American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot Kindle Edition

If you've ever had insomnia or are just a natural late night person, then you no doubt watched Craig Ferguson on his late night TV show. (The show ended December 2014, five years after this book was published.) He is Scottish...profane...compelling.Ferguson had some of the arguably most memorable and unscripted, off-the-cuff interviews on late (late) night television. It was no secret he came up the long, hard way. The man loved his booze and drugs. It almost killed him. Fortunately, he was also far luckier than most, and apparently there was a star somewhere that guided his steps.This book is a no-holds barred, down and dirty memoir. Born of middle-class, hard-working Scottish parents, he was the third of four children (two girls, two boys). He was bitten by the America bug early after receiving a large colorful poster from NASA and the drive to come to America was born and never left.Raised in the "second-worst" city in the UK (Cumbernauld), the schools provided a scrappy, terrifying education--right up until he quit at age 16. He's had ample opportunity now to reflect on how he's gotten here--circumspect and thoughtful, he decries himself as often as he praises those he credits with keeping him alive and opening one opportunity after another. The book is filled with clever and witty sayings, self-deprecating stories from his early beginnings in the spotlight as a drummer through his late, late night TV talk show. He discusses the depth of his alcohol consumption along with the full array of drugs in which he experimented from Scotland and England to New York City and eventually into Los Angeles.Filled with cynical thoughts, humorous bits of memories, setbacks and triumphs, the book is biting and deeply personal and comes off as a refreshing tale of salvation. My problem, as always, is in the profane language. Still, I'm deeply grateful for the opportunity to download from BookBub, read and review, and would heartily recommend this book to any who think they've sunk too low to save. Not true. 4.5/5 stars

Craig Ferguson's book "American on Purpose . . ." helped me appreciate America, with all its flaws, as still being the best place to try to make a life for oneself. But there's more!! Ferguson also writes a very real description of what it's like to drink and get drunk like an alcoholic. It is wonderfully genuine. In fact, it is so authentic, it is actually funny as well as being awful. He is quite brilliant the way "Beyond the Fringe" by Dudley Moore & Peter Cook was brilliant, except Ferguson is more serious. He seems to want to live a longer life. He has written movie scripts, TV scripts, other books, etc. He is actually a good writer. When I watched him chatting with the gay skeleton on late night TV, I thought he was funny, but I didn't give him credit for being a rather amazing talent. He was hosting a late night TV show solo, using only plush animal puppets and a skeleton marionette for his "straight men." I like the book cover too.

After running across a Craig Ferguson interview of Robin Williams that was among the funniest television footage ever, I remembered that this book was on my to-read list. I've loved Ferguson since the Drew Carey Show days, so I was interested in his story. It seemed like he just appeared out of nowhere, which kind of is the case.His lifetime of partying sounds like a good weekend -- at least a good holiday, three-day weekend -- for me, but he exercised, or exorcised, his demons and found some contentment, it seems, and that's what's important. He is better off, because it sounds like he was a sometimes brutal, but mostly lovable, A hole when he was drinking. And almost, you know, killed himself before quitting.Overall it was humorous and had some great moments.

Like many people in America, I discovered Craig Ferguson when he played Mr. Wick on "The Drew Carey Show." To put it bluntly, I hated him. I only looked as far as the character he played (which, now, says much about his acting ability) and found him weak, conniving, shrill, and patronizing. Once he left the show, I never missed him. Fast forward to 2009; I'd been unemployed for over a year and my ability to remain optimistic about life in general was rapidly disappearing. I was unable to sleep at night because I was sleeping all day. So, as such, I was flipping through the channels late one night and was stopped by a show featuring the "Spanish Word of the Day." I don't remember what the word was, I don't remember exactly what happened next. All I know is that I kept watching long enough for a tall, lanky Scottish man to come on the screen and be censored by an Italian flag and a "Tutti Frutti!"It was love at first obscenity.From his poor beginnings in Cumbernauld to his great successes in Los Angeles, Craig Ferguson is the embodiment of the American Dream. It happens much as you would expect - poor kid wants more, poor kid works hard, poor kid falls down a lot, poor kid moves to America, poor kid falls down some more, poor kid eventually becomes rich kid. There is little about Ferguson's story that people can't recognize in their own quests for self-fulfillment. Yet, as he tells his tale, Ferguson is witty, humble, and honest in ways that I think most people aren't when relating similar stories. He comes clean about his drug abuse and alcoholism; he owns it as a part of him. There's no escaping it; it made him who he is today and he knows it. He doesn't sugarcoat anything as he admits that his substance abuse played a large role in destroying both his first marriage and his relationship with his first true love. A later chapter, simply titled "Rehab," is one of the most poignant points of the book as he describes his literal struggle between choosing life or death. Anyone who has ever dealt with addiction or any kind of mental illness can relate to this and I was truly in tears. Keep in mind though that Ferguson's goal isn't to garner sympathy; as he says in the prologue, he tries to "spare [himself] no blushes." He is simply relating truth as he remembers it (or doesn't as the case may be). Most importantly, he wants you, American or not, to understand why he, a Scottish man, had to be American so badly. And, if you're a natural-born American like myself, you're actually kind of proud to be one once he's done. By the time I finished the book, Craig Ferguson had, in me, gained a life-long fan.This book is funny, it's tragic, it's beautifully written...a Scottish immigrant has written a quintessential American story. It's a triumph in every word.