Celebrate Father's Day with These Famous Dads

Dad.  Father.  Padre. Papa.  Pa. Pops.

Whatever you call them, this Sunday, June 16th, we celebrate them!  Below is a list of books that celebrates Famous Fathers - both fiction and non - in all their glorious, ridiculous, maddening complexity.

Fiction

Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird: I tried leaving Atticus Finch of this list because including him on a list of literary father’s is a cliche, but sometimes a characters comes along who cannot be ignored and The Finch fits that bill. Ignore his rough-drafted alter ego in Go Set A Watchman, Finch is a Monument to Integrity and remains the Ideal Father in American Literature.

Baba, The Kite Runner: I recently read this book for the first time and was struck by how Finch-like Baba (the protagonist’s father) is. Wise, Intelligent, full of integrity and kind.  Later in the book however, the book reveals an innate cruelty in the character and the cost that his integrity poses to his son, Amir. Baba proves to be a failed Monument but a richly detailed literary creation who illustrates the complexities of fatherhood.

Jack Torrence, The Shining: Because love means never having to protect your psychic-self from an alcoholic, roque-mallet-wielding father, who isolated you and your terrified mother in a snow-bound, haunted hotel for an entire winter. Jack Torrence is a terrible father; this is a mad and frightening book.

Prospero, The Tempest: King Lear gets all the press but it’s Prospero who deserves your praise.  This Duke turned Sorcerer uses his powers to exact revenge upon the enemies responsible for his downfall only to learn forgiveness when events conspire to reveal his humanity.  If you’ve ever been a father who had to let a child grow up or a child who had to assert their way toward independence, Prospero’s story is your cup of coffee.

John Kinsella, Ray Kinsella, Shoeless Joe: I’m not sure which father deserves more attention: John Kinsella for giving up his dream of playing baseball to care for a family that confused him; or his son Ray, who distanced himself so far from the man that he became him.  Either way, W.P. Kinsella’s aching book explores the bonds that tie fathers and sons. It also inspired a movie starring Kevin Costner that never fails to make me cry.  

Non-Fiction

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me: Early in this book, which takes the form of a letter written to his 15-year old son, Coates writes,  “I tell you now that the question of how one should live within a black body, within a country lost in the Dream, is the question of my life, and the pursuit of this question, I have found, ultimately answers itself.”  What follows is an attempt to explain how to exist as a black man in the United States, where, “the police departments of your country have been endowed with the authority to destroy your body.” It’s a tough and provocative read and exactly the type of conversation that a father and son should have.

Karl Ove Knausgård, Autumn: This book consists of several short essays Knausgard writes to his unborn daughter about what she can expect from life on Earth. From fish to sunshine, from body parts to body functions, Knausgard pulls poetry from the mundane and paints a portrait of life as an extraordinary experience.

Michael Kearns, Wait Till Next Year: Doris Kearns Goodwin and her beautiful writing are the stars of this wonderful book but her father, Michael Kearns, who instilled in her a love of books, baseball and the Brooklyn Dodgers, serves as the inspiration. Their love of the game lays the foundation for their relationship and her admiration for him sparks her curious nature and influences the kind of person—and scholar—she would become.

Ben Falcone, Being A Dad Is Weird: Lessons In Fatherhood from My Family to Yours: Actor, Writer, Director and Father-Of-Three-Daughters, Ben Falcone’s book captures the absurd nature of fatherhood through stories of his kids and his own father. Its humor comes from his inability to understand how he came to be a father and his attempts to make sense of his experiences.  Don’t worry too much about him though: his daughters are great and he’s married to Melissa McCarthy who, judging from the Intro she wrote, loves him madly and deeply.

Have a safe and peaceful Father’s Day!