Pops: Fatherhood in Pieces

Michael Chabon, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Manhood for Amateurs and Moonglow, returns with a collection of heartfelt, humorous and insightful essays on the meaning of fatherhood.

You are born into a family and those are your people, and they know you and they love you and if you are lucky they even, on occasion, manage to understand you. And that ought to be enough. But it is never enough

What are you allowed to talk about with your children? When to step in with advice, when to let them make their own mistakes? It’s more complicated than you think. Somehow you muddle through.

In this heartfelt, humorous and wise book, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon attempts to weigh in on difficult conversations with his children, on everything from texting girls to death. But it is when he hangs back that he catches them transforming into their own people. What emerges is a father’s deep respect for his children’s passions and for their bravery in the face of conformity.

Whether you know the joy and struggles of being a father, or were shaped by one, you will find a home in these stunning essays.

Reviews

Praise for Pops:

‘Pops is not about what we should be teaching our children but the ways in which our children teach us. That, contrary to the edict of his would-be mentor in the opening chapter, they can also provide the writer with a book’s worth of material is, one imagines, merely a bonus’ Guardian

‘Chabon’s book feels like a late-night talk with a friend about how much we love our kids and how hopeful we are that we’re better dads than we fear’ Judd Apatow, New York Times

‘Fashion also takes centre stage in the essay ‘Little Man’, in which Chabon describes taking his clothes-obsessed 13-year-old son Abe to Men’s Fashion Week in Paris. It’s both a fascinating take on its subject and brilliantly written, but what’s more, the care Chabon takes with his subject – that where Abe’s heart lies, not Chabon’s own – ensures it’s steeped in parental love without ever being gushing. Read the book for this gem of a piece alone. It’s that good’ Independent

‘Brillaintly written’ Evening Standard

‘Packs a big emotional punch … a brilliantly evocative piece of reportage, funny and engaging ’ Big Issue

Praise for Michael Chabon:

‘Chabon is one of contemporary literature’s most gifted prose stylists’ New York Times

‘Poignant, affecting, witty, wrenching, a terrific writer’ Washington Post

‘Chabon is a language magician, turning everything into something else just for the delight of playing tricks with words…Chabon's ornate prose makes (Raymond) Chandler's fruity observations of the world look quite plain…he writes like a dream’ Guardian

‘The natural exuberance and extravagance of Chabon’s writing is matched by dazzling wit’ Sunday Telegraph

‘His talent is indisputable…Chabon’s novels are warm, witty, a little whimsical, always beautifully written…he is that rare and precious beast: a literary writer with crossover appeal…’ GQ

‘He is the most wonderful vaudeville performer’ Philip Hensher, in the Spectator ‘Books of the Year’