Once upon a time, or so the story goes if my memory serves me right, a reader accused of John Irving of writing events for his characters that could never happen to anyone. To which he quipped that it's sad that one leads such a boring life to think that what he writes is unrealistic.

Bryan Cranston's memoir is a constant "Wtf, this happened to him?!" or "He did WHAT?" - all the way to the end. If his life was made into a movie, people would think it's a tongue-in-cheek Charlie Kaufman-penned biopic. Absolutely bonkers stuff - not to even mention what happened to him once he began to become famous.

The book is indeed written in parts, as advertised, which makes the reading experience often a bit disjointed, despite there being a clear chronology. As an example, Cranston tells about a very unpleasant event at a party he and Aaron Paul threw for the cast of Breaking Bad, and the way that part/essay was written I felt like there was a cliffhanger, introducing us to Chekov's unpleasant character who'd come back to haunt Cranston. I was convinced that the next part, where someone breaks into Cranston's car and steals a seekrit BB script, was going to be about the unpleasant character acting revenge on Cranston. But it wasn't. Because that dude is never mentioned again, I was a bit baffled - why did this story need its own little section?

Then again, having individual stories makes reading this book a breeze. I also enjoyed learning about Cranston's attitude toward acting and the arts in general, and how diligently he studied and put himself in situations where he would feel uncomfortable or the least skilled so that he wouldn't start resting on his laurels, thinking he's hot stuff. This theme of putting your ego aside to remain curious and to learn is underlined quite often in the book. Lots of life lessons there.