Save a Seat for Me

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 29. JUNI 2026

Neal (New Black Man), a professor of African American studies at Duke, takes a frank look at "the circumstances of being a Black father" in modern America. Raised by a dad who worked hard to provide for his children but often couldn't be around (he used his meager earnings to help pay for uniforms for his son's baseball team but was never able to see him play a game), the author resolved to be present for his kids when he became a father. A mental breakdown in his 40s pushed him to seek therapy and adopt a more holistic approach toward parenting "with my full emotional self." He discusses the challenges of raising two drastically different children (one a "line-stepper" who craved attention; the other more withdrawn and cerebral) in a society that simultaneously ignores Black dads while casting them as "spectacles" who elicit surprise and suspicions "that you don't know what you're doing." Neal also uses brief, enlightening case studies of figures like Malcolm X and Nat King Cole to highlight social forces impacting Black dads, including expectations to "show up for the community at large, often at the expense of their own families." Along the way, he offers plenty of honesty and sardonic wisdom ("If you've been doing your parenting job right, raising your children to... be skeptical of the status quo, it's inevitable that they are gonna turn that shit around on you one day"). It adds up to a memorable testament to the struggles and victories of fatherhood.