Pops: Fatherhood in Pieces

(Paperback)

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Michael Chabon, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Manhood for Amateurs and Moonglow, returns with a collection of heartfelt, humorous and insightful essays on the meaning of fatherhood.
You are born into a family and those are your people, and they know you and they love you and if you are lucky they even, on occasion, manage to understand you. And that ought to be enough. But it is never enough

What are you allowed to talk about with your children When to step in with advice, when to let them make their own mistakes Its more complicated than you think. Somehow you muddle through.

In this heartfelt, humorous and wise book, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon attempts to weigh in on difficult conversations with his children, on everything from texting girls to death. But it is when he hangs back that he catches them transforming into their own people. What emerges is a fathers deep respect for his childrens passions and for their bravery in the face of conformity.

Whether you know the joy and struggles of being a father, or were shaped by one, you will find a home in these stunning essays.

Reviews

Praise for Pops:

Pops is not about what we should be teaching our children but the ways in which our children teach us. That, contrary to the edict of his would-be mentor in the opening chapter, they can also provide the writer with a books worth of material is, one imagines, merely a bonus Guardian

Chabons book feels like a late-night talk with a friend about how much we love our kids and how hopeful we are that were better dads than we fear Judd Apatow, New York Times

Fashion also takes centre stage in the essay Little Man, in which Chabon describes taking his clothes-obsessed 13-year-old son Abe to Mens Fashion Week in Paris. Its both a fascinating take on its subject and brilliantly written, but whats more, the care Chabon takes with his subject that where Abes heart lies, not Chabons own ensures its steeped in parental love without ever being gushing. Read the book for this gem of a piece alone. Its that good Independent

Brillaintly written Evening Standard

Packs a big emotional punch a brilliantly evocative piece of reportage, funny and engaging Big Issue

Praise for Michael Chabon:

Chabon is one of contemporary literatures most gifted prose stylists New York Times

Poignant, affecting, witty, wrenching, a terrific writer Washington Post

Chabon is a language magician, turning everything into something else just for the delight of playing tricks with wordsChabon's ornate prose makes (Raymond) Chandler's fruity observations of the world look quite plainhe writes like a dream Guardian

The natural exuberance and extravagance of Chabons writing is matched by dazzling wit Sunday Telegraph

His talent is indisputableChabons novels are warm, witty, a little whimsical, always beautifully writtenhe is that rare and precious beast: a literary writer with crossover appeal GQ

He is the most wonderful vaudeville performer Philip Hensher, in the Spectator Books of the Year

Author Bio

Michael Chabon is the author of two collections of short stories, A Model World' and Werewolves in their Youth', the novels The Mysteries of Pittsburgh', Wonder Boys', The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay', The Yiddish Policemen's Union' and Telegraph Avenue', and the non-fiction books Maps and Legends and Manhood for Amateurs'. Wonder Boys' has been made into a film starring Michael Douglas and Robert Downey Jr. and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay' won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His short stories have appeared in the New Yorker, GQ, Esquire and Playboy. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and their four children.