He like Everyman onstage, that guy you could have a beer with, and that’s who he was in real life. But he’s not “Daddy Dearest” - he’s just a human who struggled with his family and his creative endeavors and at times his ego, just like all of us.Įven if he wasn’t very public about his private life, he completely believed in authenticity. I know that’s risky, that some people won’t admire him as before. Part of me absolutely wanted to humanize my father. When Mackenzie Phillips’ memoir came out, I remember thinking, “Well, I’ll never get a book deal because there’s nothing that salacious in my story!” There’s alcoholism and chaos, but my parents really loved me and did their best. That was always my father’s fear, that were going to think that.

Being trained as a therapist and seeing the importance of understanding your own story, part of my job was to share the pain, and then share the recovery and the hope too. And after my mom died, it became a real mission. Then there’s the dance with my dad when I did want to start telling my story, and how uncomfortable it made him feel. I didn’t get to tell my story while I was living it because of our dysfunction and denial and my fear of sharing it. So many people loved him how much of the book is for them and how much for you? The book’s cover pictures you with your father. In it, George Carlin emerges not only as a beloved and seminal figure in comedy but as a husband and the father of a loving yet discerning-eyed daughter.

The memoir about the family her father didn’t talk about in his performances follows a solo stage performance the onetime TV writer built around her life then and now - the afflictions and affection of a daughter who found herself sometimes having to be the parent. Her master’s degree in psychology comes in handy - along with a saving sense of humor. In Kelly Carlin’s new book, “A Carlin Home Companion,” the comedian’s daughter untangles the paradoxes of her life among “the Three Musketeers,” her father’s nickname for their family. Sure, he was funny, and your friends probably thought he was cool, but George Carlin was your dad, after all, and well, that can get complicated.

Best george carlin book