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A review by contemporarymeepsie
I Love the Bones of You: My Father and the Making of Me by Christopher Eccleston
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.0
I Love the Bones of You is an autobiography by Christopher Eccleston following his life from early childhood to starring on the RSC stage as Macbeth. But more specifically framing his life with the influence of his father Ronnie.
I thought this book was okay. I am not usually a reader of biographies, preferring instead to read a memoir (which I consider to be a fictionalised version of a true story) rather then biographies which are generally just famous people recounting things that happened to them in their lives. This was a little of column A and a little of column B for me. The bits of Eccleston's life that related to his family I found to be quite interesting and moving, but the bits about his career I found very boring. There was a particular chapter nearing the end about his work on Our Friends in the North, which obviously meant a lot to him personally, but I was so bored and it was triple the length of other chapters, and it felt very much like his editor had asked him to include more of his work to counter-balance the bits about his dad and family. It felt disingenuous which was a shame and really made me disconnect, but then he moved off his career and returned to what I believed he truly wanted to reflect on, which was his relationship with his ailing father. I personally found these chapters to be much more interesting and thankfully made me finish the book on a high. If that isn't insensitive to say given the context at the end.
Overall I'd say, a semi-interesting read but lots of repetition. Though I did learn some information about Christopher Eccleston I never knew and it reframed my experience of him.
I thought this book was okay. I am not usually a reader of biographies, preferring instead to read a memoir (which I consider to be a fictionalised version of a true story) rather then biographies which are generally just famous people recounting things that happened to them in their lives. This was a little of column A and a little of column B for me. The bits of Eccleston's life that related to his family I found to be quite interesting and moving, but the bits about his career I found very boring. There was a particular chapter nearing the end about his work on Our Friends in the North, which obviously meant a lot to him personally, but I was so bored and it was triple the length of other chapters, and it felt very much like his editor had asked him to include more of his work to counter-balance the bits about his dad and family. It felt disingenuous which was a shame and really made me disconnect, but then he moved off his career and returned to what I believed he truly wanted to reflect on, which was his relationship with his ailing father. I personally found these chapters to be much more interesting and thankfully made me finish the book on a high. If that isn't insensitive to say given the context at the end.
Overall I'd say, a semi-interesting read but lots of repetition. Though I did learn some information about Christopher Eccleston I never knew and it reframed my experience of him.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder and Dementia
Moderate: Mental illness and Death of parent