This memoir by actor Grodin (It Would Be So Nice if You Weren't Here
) begins pleasingly with recollections of his mid-century Pittsburgh childhood. Grodin has a clipped and straightforward style that's so stripped of artifice it initially comes off as dust-dry wit; if only that were the case. The book's loose autobiographical framework quickly becomes little more than an excuse for a tired assemblage of would-be thoughtful musings and score settling. Although he claims, when speaking about a TV executive who was once rude to him, “I try not to take these things personally,” it's all too clear that he does. Whether it's critiquing a speech teacher from college, a director he didn't care for or even dredging up a decades-old negative review, there is rarely a slight that the author is not willing to try and address in these pages. A deadpan marvel as an actor, Grodin the writer is, with few exceptions, humorless. (Apr.)
