Stephen Amidon
Superdad
Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father and Son
By Michael Chabon
4th Estate 306pp £16.99
Being a dad is not what it used to be. Sometime between the era when my father raised children and my own ongoing efforts, parenting became self-conscious. What had been a seat-of-the-pants operation in the days of Kennedy and Nixon turned into a thoroughly analysed undertaking by the time of Clinton and the Bushes. Although I would have once maintained that the newer approach is superior, I now wonder if there was not a good deal of wisdom in my father’s hands-off approach.
Michael Chabon – who was born four years after me and grew up in the same Maryland town – captures this generation divide in his fine collection of essays, Manhood for Amateurs. His book is very much a game of two halves. Those essays dealing with his parents
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm