This Book Will Change Your Life - Conquistador of the Useless by the Joshua Isard.

We suppose there must be something out there called "Dick Lit." Said lit would be the spawn of High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, who can legitimately be called out for exposing state secrets, and might be described as literature about men as boys not quite wanting to be men. Said lit is also required to touch on music, sometimes books, and lists, girls, escape, if not outright quest, outsiderness as cool, and the idea that John Cusack, bless his heart, is all we need to know or aspire to. Post-Dick Lit, there is the nebulous next stage in life, as well as, lit manhood, and books such as Fathermucker by the Greg Olear, which neatly, and brilliantly, capture this world. These books retain the same touchstones, but are a sort of coming of age tale for those who have already come of age, have found some kind of adult groove, are now faced with what comes next, and how any of it can possibly work out. Conquistador of the Useless by the Joshua Isard falls into this latter group, and in doing so, is rich in both detail and humor, and is not only hits the touchstones, music, lists, quests, etc., but fluidly creates a whole suburban world of marriage, office, neighbors, and aging, though not aged, parents. What's needed for these books to truly work though, is two-fold. First, there must be a new take on the old wrinkles, and in this, Isard is not only successful, but possibly prescient, in creating a protagonist who is all about work, and yet is comfortably striving for nothing more than happiness and contentment. Work is work, and necessity, certainly, but it is not life, nor intended to be anything greater than what we do day to day so we can do everything else, assuming we know what that is. Secondly, and harder to capture, the story must be authentic, or at least have moments that are so authentic, or real, that they elevate the tale beyond good writing and storytelling. Olear wrote several such scenes, including one in which the protagonist fulfills his quest after such a bad day of fathering that he, and we, are utterly amazed, and moved, he could do so. It is a scene that feels so real, it indeed elevates an already terrific book. Isard accomplishes this as well, and there is one scene that resonated with us in particular. The protagonist has made a connection with a young, female neighbor, actions that will always feel suspect, because they are always suspect, and then tells his wife that this young woman will someday be hot, something which is ultimately no different than saying she already is. When his wife calls him on this, he pleads ignorance, though there's no point in doing so. Like Hornby's best characters, he has spoken the unspoken, something men think, but shouldn't say, much less imply: in this case, the idea that really young women won't always be so young and men are all to aware of that. It is in speaking the unspoken where literature has the chance to take off, moving from good to great, and changing lives, even if only briefly at that.

Four Fathers. Where You Should Be. Cobalt Press. KICKSTARTER. The Olear.

You Can Make Him Like You gets some HuffPost love. And our (mostly) platonic love for Greg Olear grows by leaps and bounds.

Big thanks to Fathermucker Greg Olear who has once again shown You Can Make Him Like You some massive public love, this time including it along with some quite humbling company in his "The Fathermucker Holiday Shopping Guide: Best Gift Books for Dads, Part 1: Novels" list at the HuffPost. Drinks brother, on us, for sure, next time we meet.
 

Other People with Brad Listi. Digging it.

Quite digging it really. Other People with Brad Listi is the new literary podcast from Brad Listi, obviously, and The Nervous Breakdown, and it is quite fun indeed. During the weekend when we decided to riff on the Other People today we even thought we might favorably compare it to WTF with Marc Maron, with its interview by way of personal quirks and needs, yet still targeted questioning of interesting writerly types who are more than happy to share once prodded, but apparently those squirelly bastards at McSweeney's went all Inception, entered our brains, and beat us to the punch. So none of that. But digging it, yes. We particularly enjoyed the episode with the Fathermucker himself Greg Olear, but our favorite thus far, the Jessica Anya Blau, for sure, crazy pants awesome that, and her. Meanwhile, this post might be perceived by some as not only celebrating something we're digging, but a sort of sneaky and hidden agenda-like effort to get Brad Listi's attention and somehow score an invitation to be a guest on the Other People. Let's be clear then, we are digging it, a lot, but have not interest in being sneaky at all. We would totally dig an invitation. Good. Done. Though please note, that none of you may have been thinking any of this, hence adding a sort of, albeit, anti-sort of sneakiness to this whole thread. All that said, do check it out regardless, because the Other People is great fun and will most definitely change your life.

A quasi-mixed media KGB Bar wrap-up.

We were KGB Bar. We were read. We met the Lori Hettler. We got to see the Michael Paige Glover and Ken Wohlrob. There was the Greg Olear. There is video to prove it. It was goodness. All of it. And much appreciated.

Fathermucker is release date.

Today. Now. Get it. Got it. And if you're so inclined please feel free to check out our Fathermucker wordage. There you go. Feels good, right?

The Lion King. My Father's House hype. Dead dads. And massive Fathermucker love and appreciations to the Greg Olear.

Big thanks to TBWCYL, Inc. favorite and Fathermucker extraordinaire Greg Olear for running our new essay titled The Lion King at the Fathermucker blog. We honestly believe that we fulfilled our contractual obligations to talk parenting with the Lion King. We also want to own-up in advance to utilizing this most generous of opportunities to hype My Father's House, because we are shady, no stealthy, something anyway, like that. Regardless, big appreciations Greg, drinks on us for sure when next we meet, and for the rest of you, please do take a look and please do enjoy some excerpt.

Noah had never shown much interest in The Lion King. He had watched it with Myles when he was younger, but he’s Pixar, not Disney; Pokemon and Ben Ten.

But even that changed, because they are always changing.

Noah wants to watch more musicals.

Myles likes musicals. Myles now stars in musicals. Myles played a hyena in a musical.  And Noah wants to be like him. Follow him. Understand him.

And Noah wanted to watch The Lion King again.

This Book Will Change Your Life - Fathermucker by Greg Olear.

Travel. Read. Canceled flights. More read. We almost feel guilty about the fact that Fathermucker by Greg Olear isn't even coming out until October, because you will want to read it, and we hope you will. We also are struggling with what to write that doesn't give anything away, or the wrong things away, but what is that, and what would those things be? Not entirely sure, so here's what we will say, there is a father, a writerly, somewhat faux writerly, yet still writerly father none-the-less, who works at home while doing most of the parenting duties. There is a long day, and yes the book covers just one day. A day full of play dates and arguments, discipline and crackers, butt wiping and playgrounds, and all the things we do when we are caring for little kids. There is also anger though and frustration, even the threat of violence, and real emotions, all of which rarely gets captured on the page when it comes to describing the quotidian and nightmarish, yet still somehow joyous, most of time, some of time, experience of parenting. And that's something to be applauded, just as Hush Up and Listen Stinky Pooh Butt by Ken Sparling, was to be applauded for all of the same reasons. There is also humor, however, lots of it, and pop culture, lots of that too, and the storytelling is propulsive and welcoming, and it's all very good, and fun, and yet, even with all that said, we want to pause to pay homage to a moment that comes when much of the day has passed, and following a run-in with the police, and the protagonist who has a work-related goal he wants, maybe needs, to pull-off, an interview with a local celebrity, and we won't ruin that by saying any more, but when he finally has a moment with said celebrity, we were struck more than at any other moment in the novel, how hard it all can be, the intersection of parenting and wanting to be an artist, but not quite getting there, or being there, wherever there is, and realizing maybe that maybe you won't ever be there, and that you might have to embrace that your parenting skills may be the best thing about you, despite the work you put in and the anxiety and the scrapping to be something more, and at that moment we thought about our own resistance to trying to be that guy, mostly artist guy who leaves his regular paying job to try and be much more of an artist guy and dad, and our own discomfort with all that, and what it means about masculinity and the struggles of our own dad with this very thing. The moment felt so real and piercing and knowing and timely that we started to cry at the recognition of it all, and that's something, because we don't ever remember quite seeing that in print, and when that happens, when you experience such a graphic display of your own needs, and pain, and wants, it's a gift, and why we read, something we haven't been driven to note here recently, maybe not since The Road, another story about a father, but there it is, and was, and sit tight until October, but then get on it, because it just might change your life.

You Can Make Him Like You gets some nice shout-out from Greg Olear and Tom Williams respectively.

Big thanks to TBWCYL, Inc. favorites Greg Olear and Tom Williams for their respective You Can Make Him Like You shout-outs.

First, Greg has included You Can Make Him Like you on his list of 10 Great Fathers Day Books at The Olive Reader - The Weblog of Harper Perennial. The line-up is stellar, Hornby, Perrotta, Almond, et. al., and the inclusion much appreciated.

"Tanzer’s protagonist, Keith, is sort of the target audience for the beer commercials they run during football games. But in the end, Tanzer does make us like him. This one is told in short, pop culture-rich passages that makes for perfect bathroom reading."

And second, Tom talked You Can Make Him Like You during his interview at the Recommended Reading blog.

last book you finished in a single sitting

It's fairly recent and it's Ben Tanzer's You Can Make Him Like You--the novel combines both an interesting subject matter/plot and the kind of treatment (short, intense chapters, each almost a story on its own) that kept it in my hands on a fairly long flight from Austin to DC.

Again, big thanks to you both, and drinks on us, for sure, when next we meet.

More new book excitement - Fathermucker by Greg Olear.

Quite excited we are about Fathermucker which is coming soon from new BFF Greg Olear. There is a lot more at the Fathermucker site and when we have more to share, we will, for reals.