In a perfectly spiced banquet of drollery, poise, and quiet wit,
Stem (Golk, Other Men's Daughters, Natural Shocks) brings us a
touching novel of fatherhood: a father, in his own mid-life survey
of the damages and promises, worries about his young-adult
children, fearful that in raising them he does them more harm than
good. Cyrus Riemer, father of four, and divorced for 12 years (but
still with a hundred emotional and protective ties to his wife, and
to the gumbo-rich memories of their child-rearing years), looks on
as his family goes into the final stages of its dispersal, an event
symbolized by the children's no longer coming home for Christmas.
"I've always thought I was a loved father," says Cyrus, "as I am -
on the whole - a loving one." He has been a nurturing and ambitious
one as well. The son of an uneducated butcher on Manhattan's West
Side, he has gone to college, read most of Western literature, and
become, in Chicago, the editor of Riemer's Newsletter, a journal of
science for laymen. As earnest counselor to his own children,
though ("We've had great quotes from you," says Jenny, in anger,
"one for every mosquito bite"), he fears how he may have failed to
give them a sense of the wonder of life, in fact may have
embittered them. Jenny has written a book on dominating fathers in
literature; Ben has written one on fetal psychology (The Need to
Hurt); Livy works for the FBI; and Jack, the oldest, is simply on
the skids, intelligent, unemployed, and aimless. "All I see is a
life formed around a wound," Cyrus laments of Jack, "and don't
think I haven't wondered if I'm the one who inflicted it." At
book's end, though, things may be on the turnaround. Jack finally
becomes a TV writer - but of a series in which "the hero's father
[is] an Addled Intellectual whose misapprehension of the world
triggers the trouble which his son, the detective, resolves." And
as for the Addled Intellectual himself? It's to be fatherhood
another time around, as his dear mistress Emma gives birth to baby
George. The strains of Bellow, De Vries, and Elkin may be detected
in the foundation here, but Stern shows himself master builder on
his own of a complex, comic novel that touches truth and heart
repeatedly, offering up plums of sheer loveliness to boot. Fine,
affirming fiction, though unflinching; in a class of its own.
(Kirkus Reviews)
Cy Riemer--fifty-ish, divorced, and father of four--surveys the
dispersal of his family with a mixture of anxiety, humor, sadness,
and pride. In this wry, moving, and wise novel, Richard Stern
offers his masterful portrait of Cy as the quintessential caring
yet controlling parent, a relentless seeker of self-knowledge whose
search is intensified through conflicts with his brilliant,
ne'er-do-well son Jack. The manipulation of a smart, sane,
self-justifying narrator . . . is not the least of Stern's
achievements in this delicate fabrication of tough prose and tender
adjustment of sentiment.--Geoffrey Wolff, Los Angeles Times Richard
Stern's novels are robustly intelligent, very funny, and
beguilingly humane. He knows as much as anyone writing American
prose about family mischief, intellectual shenanigans, love
blunders--and about writing American prose.--Philip Roth A
delectable rhetorical display. . . . --The New Yorker Anyone who
has read Richard Stern's previous novels won't need to be told he
is an unusually crisp and intelligent writer, with a sharp edge to
his wit; and in A Father's Words he runs true to form. Many of the
book's pleasures are incidental: jokes, intellectual cadenzas,
agile turns of phrase . . . The author's powers of farcical
invention climax in a brilliant, bitter episode where . . . the
younger man proclaims his final failure . . . Mr. Stern has written
an excellent novel.--John Gross, New York Times Richard Stern is
American letters' unsung comic writer about serious matters . . .
[A Father's Words] produced in this reviewer an apostolic desire to
convince a wider audience to try Stern, especially the vintage
Stern.--Doris Grumbach, Chicago Tribune
General
Imprint: |
University of Chicago Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
1990 |
First published: |
1990 |
Authors: |
Richard Stern
|
Dimensions: |
203 x 137 x 12mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
192 |
Edition: |
New edition |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-226-77322-3 |
Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
General & literary fiction >
Modern fiction
|
LSN: |
0-226-77322-1 |
Barcode: |
9780226773223 |
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!