Father's Day

I’m not a “traditional” Dad … I don’t fish, play golf, wear ties, work in an office, drink coffee or alcohol, fix cars … I’m not a complete domestic klutz, I can do laundry, cook, change diapers and take care of the kids. My father was the same, and so Father’s Day was always a challenge because all of the gifts and cards were/are geared toward a stereotypical view of Fatherhood. So, the easiest route to go for both my Dad and myself has always been books, since we are both big readers. Therefore, on this Fathers’ Day, it seems to me that it would be fun to look back on the books I have read and answer three questions:

1. Best Father in Literature
   
2. Worst Father in Literature
   
3. Best Book for Dads

Best Father in Literature
After a lot of consideration, I think that this “award” goes hands down to Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Now, my choice of Atticus may be colored by Gregory Peck’s masterful portrayal in the film but whether it is or not is immaterial because the Atticus in the film is, more or less, the Atticus in the book and so whether or not Peck influences my decision has no bearing on the choice. (Does that make sense?) Anyway, even though Atticus is an older dad, and a single dad, I think that he is one of the greatest dads in literature because he is one of the most loving and caring dads. He is very involved in the lives of Jem and Scout and he is a model father in that he is always teaching his children and never disciplining them in a manner that would have been consistent with the time. I love that he is gentle with Jem and Scout, and one of the best images in the novel is Atticus sitting in his chair with Scout on his lap as they read the newspaper and he reads with her and teaches her to read. It is a very loving and wonderful image that really sticks with me.

Worst Father in Literature
My inclination in this category is to name Jack Torrance from Stephen King’s The Shining as “Worst Father in Literature” and I think that that is what I am going to do, though with a bit of a caveat. Why Jack? Well, after all and if you will remember, he is the father who is a fall-down drunk who breaks his son’s arm, beats a student senseless … oh, and chases his wife and child around a deserted hotel with a roque mallet calling for them to “take their medicine.” It doesn’t get much “worst” than that, really, and in spite of Jack’s “good” moments, he really is a pretty bad father from page one and it doesn’t go anywhere but south from there: destroying the engine of the only snowmobile and blaming it on your son, smashing the only CB radio and blaming it on your son, blaming your weaknesses and peccadilloes on your wife, taking absolutely no responsibility for your own failings and always seeking to pass the blame to others … that rates you pretty high on the Worst List. That said, it is time for the caveat of which I spoke. In spite of all of this, Jack isn’t a “horrible” father. Danny genuinely loves him, Jack seems to genuinely love Danny, Jack—depending on your interpretation of the novel—may not be entirely responsible for his actions in the Overlook (it is haunted, after all, and violently so … but it does seem to amplify Jack’s emotions and feelings that he already has), he comes from a history of domestic violence (his father was a world-class wife- and child-beater, so to speak), and in the end in spite of being possessed by the hotel manages to at least redeem himself a little by giving his son and wife time to escape before it all goes up in a massive fireball. So, I name Jack Torrance “Worst Father in Literature” but hang an asterisk (*) after that title and acknowledge that his failure as a father is all the more glaring because of his prior success.

Though, to be fair to Jack, it might just be the way King (and Kubrick) have portrayed him. After all, according to this, he might not be a bad dad after all:

Best Book for Dads
So, my initial thought on this particular “award” was Sherman Alexie’s Flight which is a novel that is, in one sense, a book that is a meditation on fathers and sons and the nature of “fatherhood” and what those two words mean in relation to each other and what relationships can be passed along those lines. It really is, in the end, a wonderful and heart-warming story. However, the more I think about it, the more I think that Flight ties with Ray Bradbury’s marvellous Something Wicked This Way Comes which, like Flight, is a meditation on the relationship of fathers and sons and what goes on between them. Like Alexie’s book, Bradbury’s takes the innate closeness of a father and son and then runs all sorts of problems and complications through that relationship and sees what comes out in the end. For Alexie, that end result is hopeful, if somewhat problematic, and for Bradbury it is equal parts nostalgia and melancholy. However, whichever way you take it these two books are simple amazing pieces of fatherhood literature and so they both are my choice for “Best Book(s) for Dads.”