Culture

Author: Michael J. Fox
Publisher: Hachette
(1/5)

In a brief 100 pages, Michael J. Fox tells his tale of how to be successful as a high school drop-out. Instead of a college education, Fox got life experience, which is just as well given his confession that he would have been loathe to get a loan for a future he wasn’t sure was waiting for him. Of course, it was tough. He describes his first apartment and how hard it was to find acting work in Hollywood, settling for advertisements and bit parts in soap operas before landing the part that got him noticed: Alex Keaton on Family Ties. We know the rest, of course: Back to the Future, Spin City, etc., and then the public acknowledgement of his Parkinson’s disease and dedication to battling it. Through his foundation, Fox is still actively working to raise money and encourage research for a cure. 
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future is meant to be a gift for university graduates, but a book about how a successful individual managed without a tertiary education is bound to sound patronising. I mean, Fox thinks that it’s a “funny thing” that he got educated on his way through his life, claiming to have learnt economics, literature, geography, and other such things via “life lessons” rather than formal classes (or the school of hard knocks rather than graduate school, Life 101 rather than ECON 101 ... you get the picture). But Fox got seriously lucky and this book takes the piss out of the shmucks doing the hard yards behind a desk. He struck gold and did well before life slowed him down. And he doesn’t hesitate to tell us that while he didn’t have to attend lectures or cram for exams, he got the parties, the booze, and all the action before the disease. So, unless you feel the need for a lecture from your absent parents, give this a miss or give it to someone who skipped the parties and is graduating rather smug with a huge debt. Silly us for thinking a few letters after our name can improve our lot – he’s got three honorary PhDs, thank you very much! Unless I knew the money was going to the foundation, I wouldn’t bother with this book.