Rating: 
Summary: Seems More Like an Effort to be Shocking then to Tell a Tale
Review: Tommy is 26. Tommy likes drugs. Tommy likes sex. Tommy likes drugs and sex together. Tommy likes sex with women. Tommy likes sex with men. Tommy likes sex with himself. Tommy thinks a lot about sex when Tommy is not having sex. Now Tommy wants a child. What's poor Tommy to do?
This book wasn't what I expected at all. I don't know what I expected, but this isn't it. This book is cheeky, seductive, gross, indecent, and at times mildly amusing. There I said it. Or did I?
The first person dialogue flip flops into the every day life of Tommy, a scrawny adult photographer's assistant who wants to be a carefree teenager while having sex in public washrooms whenever he pleases. The problem is: Tommy is getting older and so are all his friends. Adding further insult, Tommy becomes depressed. Long passages of narrative become repetitive after a while. Tommy never seems to gain any ground. His own epiphanies arise and are ignored, like "We all live life so fast these days that we don't even process what we're doing a lot of the time." Bingo!
Tommy isn't alone on his journey of self-discovery. Like Chic Lit, there are the stereotypical best friends/roommates and of course one of them is gay. In this case his roommates are Sadie and Bobby and then there's Charlie. Charlie is the closest thing Tommy has to a regular boyfriend but he can't decide if that's the direction he wants to take. Mostly because he's afraid of ruining (or disappointing) Charlie's eight year old son Finn, who's more mature than the adults in his life. Then there's the nerdy boss, Julian, who lives vicariously through Tommy's stories every Monday morning.
If you're a homophobe this book definitely isn't for you. There are graphic sex scenes of all degrees between men and women. Seems more like an effort to be shocking then to tell a tale.
But even so, one can only read about some raunchy guy having sex with just about anything that moves so many times before it become tiresome. If you read closely, between the sex, drugs and sex he's surprisingly philosophical. Overall, slow action, periods of monotonous dialogue with himself and the reader. A boring foray through the annals of alternative British society.
Once you get past the grunge and shock factor of the book there's a young man who's trying to grow up and find himself. He does a lot of thinking (and drugs) along the way. Did I like this book? Afraid not, it just wasn't my cup of tea. I wanted to read it because Alan Cumming, the actor, wrote it and in this case it wasn't enough to improve my impression of the book.
(...)
Rating: 
Summary: A Promising First Novel
Review: Tommy's Tale is described on its jacket cover as "rollicking". And it is. Written by Alan Cumming, this book is sharp, smart, laugh-out-loud funny, and surprisingly poignant. Tommy, the narrator of the story, is a 29-year-old adolescent. He has made a choice not to grow up and he revels in his decadent lifestyle. Living in London with his friends and roommates Sadie and Bobbie, he lives a self-indulgent life of drugs, sex, and parties. As he approaches his thirtieth birthday however, Tommy suddenly finds himself faced with the very emotions and feelings he's been trying so hard to avoid. It seems like everyone is telling him to grow up, including his sort-of boyfriend Charlie, who is ready for more of a commitment. Even Charlie's charming eight-year-old son wants Tommy to be more responsible and be his "second daddy". Most demanding, though, is Tommy's own desire to have a true family of his own. Tommy's bad decisions continue to pile up, and he resorts to more and more drug use in an effort to stem the rising tide of depression. Will he be able to overcome his excesses and be the man his friends and family need him to be? This is Alan Cumming's first novel, but I'm hoping it won't be his last. Cumming is better known for his Tony Award-winning turn as the emcee in Cabaret. He has also starred in quite a few recent movies, including his critically acclaimed cowritten, coproduced, codirected and costarred The Anniversary Party. Cumming writes in a very personal style. It feels as if you are having a conversation with an old friend in your favorite bar. He has a knack for capturing the small things in life that make his story feel all the more real. This isn't for the moralistic or squeamish. He tends to glamorize drug use, although he doesn't pull any punches when it comes to their effects, and the sex is graphic and abundant. My biggest reservation about this book was the predictable and somewhat flat ending. It leaves you with warm fuzzies and wraps everything up neatly (perhaps too neatly), but it doesn't quite live up to the rest of the story. You can't help but get the feeling that perhaps Cumming is already thinking about the screenplay for his first novel and wrote the perfect, feel-good, Hollywood ending. Still, Tommy's Tale is one of my favorite books I've read in a while.
Rating:
Summary: Fun read
Review: Tommy's Tale is the first novel by renaissance man Alam Cumming, whom you may know from The Anniversary Party, Cabaret, or X-Men 2.
Cumming himself is a rather impish character, and the narrator (Tommy) in Tommy's Tale sounds a lot like the persona Cumming eminates.
I enjoyed Tommy's Tale - written in the manner of a memoir. The free-loving Tommy is an engaging character, even as he makes terrible life choices, we can't help but like him and want to ruffle his hair.
Cumming is very clever, not just in characterization and plot but also in the form of the novel. It felt to me a little like a cross between Nick Hornby and Augusten Burroughs. Very funny, yet with lots of emotions under the surface.
All in all, a very enjoyable read - unless you have issues with drug use, lots of sex, lots of drug use during sex, descriptions of bodily functions, etc.
Rating: 
Summary: Written for a selected few...
Review: Tommy's Tale was simply amazing, for lack of a better word. Many would complain that Cumming's style (rather erratic and jumpy) becomes annoying fairly quickly. The novel is written in a journal-like fashion, with there really being no distinct plot line and no real purpose save the story of the life of the main character, Tommy.
That, I believe, was the entire point. I truly do not think that this book was meant to be like a regular story. Only those with an open mind can truly understand the deeper emotions hidden behind the words.
If you are looking for a regular beginning, rise, climax, fall, end story, this is not the book for you. However, if you're looking for something comepletely different, unique, deliciously addictive and a little sex, drugs, and more sex thrown into the mix, then you need to get this book as soon as possible.
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