Michael Chabon, author of many acclaimed novels, including The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and The Yiddish Policemen's Union, has just published a collection of essays, Manhood for Amateurs, and we have a limited number of signed first editions in the store!
In this collection of entertaining and opinionated essays, Chabon comments on his personal experiences of being a son, a husband, and a father -- the handy thing about the latter role, he notes, "is that the historic standard is so pitifully low." He adds, "Fathers are popularly supposed to serve as protectors of their children, but in fact men lack the capacity for identifying dangers except in the most narrow spectrum of the band. It is women -- mothers -- whose organs of anxiety can detect the vast invisible flow of peril through which their children are obliged daily to make their way."
Chabon also defends his willingness -- especially as he grows older and no longer gives a hoot -- to defy the adage that purses are for women only: "One of the fundamental axioms of masculine self-regard is that the tools and appurtenances of a man's life must be containable within the pockets of his jacket and pants....The necessary corollary to this inviolate principle is that no man, ever, ought to carry a purse. Purses are for women; a purse is basically a vagina with a strap."
At once dazzling, hilarious, and moving, Manhood for Amateurs shares with you Chabon's memories of his childhood as well as his experiences as a parent. Chabon lives in Berkeley with his wife, the writer Ayelet Waldman -- who recently published her own collection of essays about parenting, Bad Mother.
