Tuesday, Dec. 08, 2009
Manhood for Amateurs by Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon decided to be honest with his children, even if it meant admitting to his 10-year-old son that he had smoked pot. "How many times?" his son asked, stunned. "I had a moment's pause before replying," Chabon writes, "unwilling to pronounce those two simple worlds: one million." Best known for his novels (The Yiddish Policemen's Union, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay), Chabon brings his prodigiously entertaining verbal intelligence to a very personal investigation of what it means to be a father, a son and a husband at a moment when those job descriptions are so plagued by contradictions that a simple act like buying a bag to put your stuff in — a man purse, or "murse," if you will — is all but impossible.