Manhood for Amateurs

The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son

By Michael Chabon
(Harper Perennial, Paperback, 9780061490194, 336pp.)

Publication Date: May 2010

Other Editions of This Title: Hardcover, Paperback

Categories: Personal Memoirs

Selected by Indie Booksellers for the October 2009 Indie Next List

Michael Chabon is the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the Mysteries of Pittsburgh, A Model World, Wonder Boys, Werewolves In Their Youth, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The Final Solution, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Maps & Legends, Gentlemen of the Road, and the middle-grade book Summerland.

He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, the novelist Ayelet Waldman, and their children.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist opens up about his experiences as a father to four children and husband to writer Ayelet Waldman in his book of personal essays, Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father and Son, now out in paperback. More at NPR.org

Book reviewer Alan Cheuse selects the highlights of this holiday season: futuristic dystopias; things that go bump in the night; portraits from Norman Rockwell's America; gay New York; a celebration of our immigrant adventures; one writer's journey to manhood; and, of course, Long John Silver. More at NPR.org

Book reviewer Alan Cheuse selects the highlights of this holiday season: futuristic dystopias; things that go bump in the night; portraits from Norman Rockwell's America; gay New York; a celebration of our immigrant adventures; one writer's journey to manhood; and, of course, Long John Silver. More at NPR.org

Author Michael Chabon has seen manhood from just about every angle — as a boy obsessed with comic books, as a husband serving as a surrogate son to his father-in-law, and now as a dad trying to be honest with his kids about his early years smoking pot. The author, who won a Pulitzer for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, tells host Guy Raz about his amazing adventures in domesticity, chronicled in his new book of essays, Manhood for Amateurs: the Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son. More at NPR.org

The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist opens up about his experiences as a father to four children and husband to writer Ayelet Waldman in his new book of personal essays, Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father and Son. More at NPR.org

Excerpt: 'Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son' More at NPR.org

“Chabon takes a big, fat swing at the essay form with his second collection and achieves success. . . . These warm and thoughtful essays underscore just how good a wordsmith Chabon is-regardless of the form he chooses.”
-Jerry Eberle, Booklist

“Chabon brings his prodigiously entertaining verbal intelligence to a very personal investigation of what it means to be a father, a son, and a husband.”
-Lev Grossman, Time (Top 10 Nonfiction Books Citation)

“Both lyrical and side-splittingly funny. . . . Readers seeking the intelligence of Updike; the gentle, brainy appeal of Sedaris; or the literary virtuosity of Nabokov will thoroughly enjoy.”
-Douglas C. Lord, Library Journal

“Wry and heartfelt, Chabon’s riffs uncover brand-new insights in even the most quotidian subjects. . . . He applies an unusual level of wit and candor to the form.”
-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Hilarious, moving, pleasurable, disturbing, transcendent, restless. . . . And seemingly by accident, Chabon ultimately does create a composite image of ideal manhood, one that is modest, responsible, bemused, empathic, and thoughtful.”
-Jeremy Adam Smith, San Francisco Chronicle