What’s the funniest celebrity image you’ve ever seen? Google “Patrick Stewart Lobster Costume and do yourself a favor’😂
When Making It So first came out I remember eyeing it hungrily on the Barnes & Noble bookshelf for 30 bucks and said “Wow, I’ll wait till the library picks it up.” Maybe I’m a bad fan but it was just too much money for a book I know I’ll only read once
So I finally got the audiobook thru Libby. It is read by Stewart himself and a wonderful listen.
It was interesting and accessible even if you don’t know British references or anything about theatre. I don’t know a thing about Shakespeare theatre so I freely admit that the theatre stuff (most of the book) rolled off me in a slide of names I’ll never know and quotes from Shakespeare that I’ll never remember.
One cool thing is that apparently I’ve spent enough time in Britain to know some of the places he talked about! I was dying when he said they all hung out at the black swan and we had eaten there in Stratford!
That all said, what formed was a picture of a man that grew up in rural British poverty with an abusive father, who did what he had to do to climb the theatre ladder rung by rung. He wasn’t handed anything and went far, far out of his way to gain any scrap of advantage he could get.
He had barely heard of science fiction and had no pop culture reference (which is hilarious) and embarrassed himself quite a few times with other celebrities before he came to America to audition for Star Trek. I obviously enjoyed those parts the most and the anecdotes and references to his time with the franchise. It’s a small part of the book but Stewart is funny throughout and makes the entire book accessible to those who don’t know theatre, like me.
It’s still a good read all the way thru even though I think he’s a bit of an 🫏(ass) for cheating on multiple wives. I just can’t with that behavior. What stuck out about it at first to me was how he seemed unrepentant, but then after further reflection, Stewart doesn’t seem to regret anything ever. He followed his heart regardless of where it took him, of who it took him towards or away from. There’s something to be said about being unapologetically yourself, although to me it’s just a huge red flag when a married man …. Uh…. Yeah ha ha but at least he was humble about it, and everything else, really.
Anyway, the book is full of funny stories and anecdotes that had me laughing out loud. I learned a lot about British culture, theatre, Trek, and a lot of other things. I wish he had talked about his charity work with rescue dogs but there were plenty of LOL dog stories there.
Overall I really enjoyed it and am still a huge fan. He’s an amazing orator and writer. I would read anything else he writes (as long as it’s fiction, not a theatre manual😂)
Have you read it? What did you think?
Bookish Quick Facts:
- Title: Making It So: A Memoir
- Author: Written & read by Patrick Stewart
- Length: 480 pages / ~19 hours
- Published: Gallery Books, 2023
- Recommended: I always feel weird rating people’s memoirs but I do recommend it if you’re a fan of any of Stewart’s work, for sure
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