Father: Famous Writers Celebrate the Bond Between Father and Child

by Claudia O'Keefe

A collection of stories centred around the theme of the bond between father and child. Authors include Annie Proulx and John Updike. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671007912
• ISBN13: 9780671007911
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 350 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

O'Keefe delivers a great read!

I bought this book not because I had heard good things about it, though I had; but because not ever having a father myself, I have always been curious as to what they were really like. I'd expected to skip through the book, verifying my own thoughts as to what my father might have been like should he have opted to stick around, then stuff the book onto a shelf. Wrong! Once begun, I was hooked (and I'm not a fan of anthologies or short stories).O'Keefe has pulled together a group of writers who depict almost every type of father imaginable, some loving, some distant, some giving and strong, others needy and weak, many in between. I found myself reading through the night, forgetting about my original reason for picking up the book. Some that stood out for me were the pieces by E. Annie Proulx, Jane Praeger, Ana Veciana-Suarez (the scene where her father is shot in a drive-by is riveting, the ending touching) and Jonathan Kellerman.What surprised me was that some of the better known names did not live up to what I'd expected. Dean Koontz came across cold and somewhat arrogant in his writing, though to be fair, this may just have been the particular character he wrote about. Interesting was the story by Jonathan Kellerman's son, Jesse. He does show potential, but his writing seemed flat and the characters one-dimensional. It goes to prove that becoming a good writer takes time and maturity, and perhaps paying your dues.What I find really amazing, though, is that some of the best work in the book was by writers whose names were not familiar to me, and I am an eclectic reader. I have put their names in my mental file to look for again. Oh yes, Claudia O'Keefe's own essay came closest to what I was searching for when I bought Father. I would like to spend lunch with her to exchange thoughts on fathers. Her choice of restaurant, I'll buy. As for O'Keefe's editorship, she has managed to change my feelings about anthologies. Before reading Father I thought them nothing but literary grab bags. I'm now looking forward to her next one, whatever the subject she may chose.

I don't buy many books....

but I bought this one the moment I saw it. Fathers are a subject of such huge importance to families today, but so rarely discussed in modern literature. I thought Dean Koontz' essay about the atheist father who actively tried to deny his son any hope of eternal life was brilliant, but very dark, and a little soft at the end. John Updike's characters were good, but the story went nowhere. Claudia O'Keefe's portrait of the father she never knew until she was an adult and found out she was better off not knowing was memorable as was Caroline Leavit's picture of the family vacations from Purgatory. Jonathan Kellerman's semi-mystery of the cop who doesn't want his daughter following in his footsteps was unexpectedly touching, not to mention suspenseful. But to top them all off, that David Forsmark, a guy I've never heard of, blew them all away with a somewhat tongue-in-cheek tale of the woes of his fundamentalist upbringing which kept me glued - and grinning - from start to finish. I hope to see more books of this type and will definitely keep my eyes peeled for anything by Forsmark.