June 18, 2017 PAPA'S GOT A BRAND NEW BAG

It's that time of year again. Father's Day. It's a time to honor those men who take their parental responsibilities seriously.  They change diapers, wake up at all hours of the night to clean up vomit, calm a child down after night terrors and even make room for a little one in their bed after a bad dream. Being a parent is hard work--every day for the rest of your life--it's a lesson in selflessness that never ends. Unfortunately, many children grow up without fathers. Statistics estimate that  24 million children in the United States--1 in 3--live without a father. Fatherlessness is one of the most significant problems facing our society. It IS what's wrong with our world.  It saddens me on every level when I hear young mothers actually say "baby daddy" when referring to the father of their child.  It's even worse when I five year old uses this term??? I actually cringe. Is this the new norm?? If it is  then we as a society are in a lot of trouble. This has to change. Fatherlessness hurts everyone. Statistics have proven that children without fathers risk--living in poverty--substance abuse--teen pregnancy--dropping out of high school.  I wish I knew how to stop this cycle that perpetuates a helplessness that can easily be prevented. Many of these themes are explored in Nathan Hill's highly praised new novel The Nix.

First saw this book in the New York Times Sunday Book Review. It came recommended by one of my favorite writers--John Irving and it was referred to as Dickensian. Knew immediately it would be my cup of tea. Hill's novel is about many things including love, betrayal, politics, family relationships AND it is also a satire on society today. It's a huge undertaking--he actually spent 10 years on it and it shows-- the writing is both wonderful and introspective. The main character is Samuel Andreson-Anderson. He is a thirty year old English professor and failed writer. Sam has a nix--something that he loved that disappeared and took a piece of his heart. His mother, Faye, who abandoned him when he was 11 years old. He hasn't heard from her in 20 years until she gets  arrested for attacking a well-known politician and her image is splashed all over the news. Sam decides to help his mother, but in order to do so, he must find out her secret life in Chicago during the 1968 riots. Hill takes the reader back to Faye's childhood-- her difficult relationship with a father she never understood-- to Sam's childhood--when his mother left the family--and back to the present. This sweeping novel is told through several characters--including  an addicted gamer named Pwnage, a college student named Laura Pottsdam who is trying to get Sam fired, Sam's childhood friends, Bishop & Bethany as well as Guy Periwinkle, Sam's publisher. It's a menagerie of interesting characters that somehow come full circle by the end of this winner of the Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. It is a novel that is SO relevant today that it IS well worth the 600 pages. It's a commitment though--perhaps an 8 mile run--that you will not regret!