Fathers’ Turn

At Literary Mama , we turn our attention to the stories of fathers once a year in June, but two fathers have recently released books worth checking out.

First, a former Literary Mama contributor, larry bauer, has come out with his first collection of poems. Titled, Health Insurance and Other Matters of Death and published by Foothills, larry’s poems take a darker turn. Each poem in the collection is an evocative mini-story. In one of my favorites, “kelsie,” larry uses the voice of a child and creative punctuation in a brilliant illustration that draws the reader to the center of this heartbreaking poem.

“will i ever have a home of my own
?again”
…
“will i ever live with my mommy
?again”
..
“will that man ever do those things to me
?again”

His poem, “golgotha,” about the death of his brother, combines the lyrical with the realistic, for a stunning result, beginning with a surprising, dramatic opening stanza “i will always remember our last supper at taco johns” You can find a copy of the collection at the Foothills publishing website.

Elisha Cooper has just come out with a memoir about the first year of fatherhood. Crawling is a funny, highly accessible series of vignettes and musings on the early stages of fatherhood. In one particularly amusing moment, Cooper discusses his obsession with his wife’s breasts: “I’ve always liked them. Now I like them. I’m looking at them more than at Elise. I’m aware that she doesn’t appreciate my attention since now there are two people in the house fixated on when next she’s going to take off her shirt.”

For all that books like Operating Instructions and Waiting for Birdy have done to make memoirs of motherhood truer, funnier and more engaging, perhaps Crawling will do for memoirs of fatherhood.