Mel's Reviews > I Love the Bones of You: My Father And The Making Of Me

I wasn't going to read this but Chris was doing a talk and a signing at the National Theatre so I got a copy. It was very interesting and I'm glad I read it. At the talk he mentioned he had a ghost writer which I found very off putting at first. It was all written first person and I wanted to know which bits were actually Chris and which were the writer filling in. I saw it as a transcription of an oral history and I would rather have had it as the raw oral history than the polished for consumers version. But I don't think that would have sold as well. Also for SUCH a personal story to have it that way just rang a bit false.
That said it is DEFINITELY worth reading and utterly wonderful! I cried quite a bit! It was a lot more autobiography than I had expected. I thought it was just about dealing with his Dad's dementia. I found the growing up stuff less interesting, there was a lot of watching tele. But the parts when he was talking about being an adult it was fascinating. The chapters dealing with his anorexia and depression were so honest and open. Likewise talking about masculinity and the politics of what that means to be a working class man were fascinating and quite sad. Reading it you realise how much we all have in common. The parts dealing with his Dad's dementia I recommend to everyone whose got a parent or a loved one going through that. While it wasn't blatant within his own narrative there was a definite theme of how Chris had grown through the illness and through having children, from having his world be about him, to doing what he could to take care of the people around him. The shift I think is how this book came to be as he went from thinking about himself to thinking how these experiences could help others. As the issues are discussed not in an egotistical way but as a way to connect to people who are going through the same thing. Or know someone going through the same thing. For that is brilliant.
I have always admired Chris as an actor but now I admire him as a person as well. He stands up for what he thinks is right. One question I was left with was why his left wing Labour voting father started reading the daily mail. I think that is the key to understanding how things like Brexit have happened. What was the shift there?
But I highly recommend this book. Even though I already have a signed copy the next time he does a convention I'm going to get an autograph from him. Just so I can thank him again for this.