COOL STUFF

| by Melissa Chianta

Focus on
fathers
A crop of books that speak to the heart and mind
of the modern, involved dad

In honor of Father’s Day, this edition of “Cool Stuff” is all about the men in our families. As I read these selections, I was reminded of a scene from the 2003 French film Les Invasions barbares (The Barbarian Invasions) in which a young woman tearfully cries out to her dying father, “I’ve been missing you all my life!” The exclamation magnifies the tragic disconnection between generations of dads and their kids, the result of the historical role of male parents as emotionally and physically remote financial providers.

Thankfully, times have changed, and finally there are some books that give meaningful advice to, and reflect the experiences of, the contemporary father.

The Book of Dads: Essays on the Joys, Perils, and Humiliations of Fatherhood, a collection of finely crafted literary essays edited by Ben George, is the kind of intelligent, thoughtful book on fathering I have been waiting to see for years. I can’t recommend this book highly enough for dads who yearn for reflections on the emotional complexities