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192 reviews for:
Manhood for Amateurs: the Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father and Son
Michael Chabon
3.69 AVERAGE
192 reviews for:
Manhood for Amateurs: the Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father and Son
Michael Chabon
3.69 AVERAGE
lighthearted
medium-paced
wonderful whimsy and entertaining insights. I would like to spend time with the author talking about life and things.
Give to Douglas for a bit of bonding
Give to Douglas for a bit of bonding
This is a collection of articles Michael Chabon wrote for Details magazine. They all concern manliness in one way or another, being a son, a father, a friend, a boyfriend, a husband and an observer of girls and women. This collection isn’t for men or even for women who want to understand men, so much as it’s about Michael Chabon and his personal reflections on manhood. Like anything written honestly and well this book is for everyone.
Having read several of his novels I was expecting good writing and to enlarge my vocabulary a little. That I got. And as an added bonus I discovered that I like a writer whose work I admire. That doesn’t happen as often as it should. Manhood for Amateurs is funny, touching and occasionally thought provoking. It’s an easy, enjoyable read without ever being trivial or trite.
Go on, read it.
Having read several of his novels I was expecting good writing and to enlarge my vocabulary a little. That I got. And as an added bonus I discovered that I like a writer whose work I admire. That doesn’t happen as often as it should. Manhood for Amateurs is funny, touching and occasionally thought provoking. It’s an easy, enjoyable read without ever being trivial or trite.
Go on, read it.
I started it not really into it and the essays and observations seemed pretentious and silly and forced and the one about baseball didn't help things, but as I read them I warmed up and fell into the style and by the end I was sorry it was over. I wonder if I started over if I would have been more forgiving of the first essays, except the one on baseball, and although I'm not going to do that, I feel like this was a book really worth reading and I am glad I know Michael Chabon and his family a little bit better. There were wonderful and true moments and a lot of moments that made me laugh or made me sad or made me think, so overall I recommend it highly.
Michael Chabon's Manhood for Amateurs is a collection of biographical essays (I really am on an essay kick lately) that deal with being a son, a husband, and a father, and draws witty and truthful comparisons between the world he grew up in, and the one his kids are growing up in. I love the man's style, and geeks like us will find a brother in this man who has managed to write a Pulitzer-winning story about the dawn of American comics. Of special interest to my readers, there's a loving homage to Big Barda, and an analysis of geek culture represented by a story in which he and his family are caught out for loving the new Doctor Who series. Whether they are "geeky" or not (and most aren't), they are honest, personal and fresh. A lovely and all-too-quick read.
What a wonderful book. I love Chabon's fiction -- his style is so elegant, graceful, and self-assured -- and in this collection of personal essays, all these qualities are on display. Although he can also be impressively cerebral, Chabon writes from the heart, especially here. He observes closely and thinks deeply, but there is a big-heartedness even in his most fiercely held opinions. A great bookend to Ayelet Waldman (Chabon's wife)'s collection of essays, "Bad Mother."
I'm not sure I'm going to finish this. He's a lucky man who can watch over his children with an intensity that most fathers can't. He is a writer, so material is everywhere, but this is getting exasperating dull, with observations about how childhood will never be the same and how Dad's get credit just for showing up. Nice to know, but not new.
this very well might be the handbook for the manly boys will be boys metrosexual.
i haven't read a thing chabon other than this. i don't think i've even seen any of the movies that his books have been made into. so i don't have a clue when he's self referencial and i have no idea about the tenor and engagement of his fiction.
incredibly charming and disarming at time [kudos for honesty and for acknowledging the continued inequity and just plain old difference in genders], definitely insightful, sometimes completely esoteric and egocentric.... overall i'm glad i read it. there are some really really GOOD essays. ones i will have my students read - for they deal with issues of rejection, and the idea of necessary and heartfelt WORK ethic in a creative endeavor that really encapsulated some large ideas in a straightforward way.
i haven't read a thing chabon other than this. i don't think i've even seen any of the movies that his books have been made into. so i don't have a clue when he's self referencial and i have no idea about the tenor and engagement of his fiction.
incredibly charming and disarming at time [kudos for honesty and for acknowledging the continued inequity and just plain old difference in genders], definitely insightful, sometimes completely esoteric and egocentric.... overall i'm glad i read it. there are some really really GOOD essays. ones i will have my students read - for they deal with issues of rejection, and the idea of necessary and heartfelt WORK ethic in a creative endeavor that really encapsulated some large ideas in a straightforward way.