Fathers' Race - Book About Paternity (Paperback, New edition)

Books about fatherhood are usually either chipper, no-nonsense handbooks, dense with cartoons and practical advice; or collections of essays, maudlin, introspective and bowling under the weight of their own sensitivity. FATHER’S RACE is neither of these. Deliberately unhelpful, almost entirely free of useful generalisations and shamelessly frank about the realities of fatherhood from conception to ten years, it plunges into the whole sordid business of nappies, boredom, family excursions to preserved warships, madness, food, toys, sex education, clothes that don’t fit, bonding, vomit, love, hitting, financial ruin, happiness and, of course, nursery-school fathers’ races, where Charles Jennings finds himself overtaken by the whole field and a grandfather – but is rescued from humiliation by his own son, aged five … This is what it’s really like: a mess, a shambles of experiences and emotions, a universe in which failure and triumph occupy almost the same space, at the same time; as do love and rage; misery and elation; boredom and breathless terror. Read this book, and at least you’ll know that it’s not just you. Fatherhood is actually meant to be impossible.