Fathermucker: A Novel [Paperback]

Greg Olear (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 4, 2011

"...a whip-smart, hilarious, and deeply moving meditation
on fatherhood and marriage."

--Jonathan Evison, author of West of Here and All About Lulu


"In vivid Crayola yellow, Olear brilliantly highlights the bliss and pathos, fear, loathing and lusting of 21st century parenthood. Yet beneath the sippy cups, crumpled Happy Meal bags, and Mom Jeans intertwined with another dad's sweatpants on the floor of this runaway minivan of a novel lies much more. FATHERMUCKER is nothing less than a moving and sneakily profound meditation on what it means to exist in these absurd and troubling times."

-- James P. Othmer, author of The Futurist and Holy Water


"..a book you can't wait for your friends to read, too -- an exhilarating and fearless celebration of life's highs, lows, and all the glorious in-betweens."

-- Maria Semple, author of This One Is Mine


"Fathermucker is a staggering achievement. A reflection on love, marriage and parenthood,
so astoundingly honest, laugh-out-loud funny, and genuine, it will break your heart."
  
-- Robin Antalek author of The Summer We Fell Apart


"I LOVE this book. Packed with fantastically spot-on parenting details, and so funny, I kept
reading it out loud to everyone around me (Yes, even the kids. Let's hope they don't remember)."

--  Lenore Skenazy, author of the book and blog Free Range Kids


"With candor and wit, Greg Olear takes the reader to the most uncomfortable truths
of marriage and parenthood--and yet Fathermucker oozes with vulnerability and love.
I burst into tears several times while reading this novel, and was beyond moved by the
anguished acceptance of young Roland's autism. Compassionate, insightful, and
laugh-out-loud funny."

-- Susan Henderson, author of Up from the Blue

"Funny, wise, sexy...this claustrophobic vision of contemporary parenting hits home."

-- Thelma Adams, author of Playdate

"Only a writer with the verve, daring and great talent of Greg Olear could pull off a novel
that deals with sippy cups, masturbation, autism spectrum disorder, affairs, and playdates
all at once. Fathermucker is delightfully unexpected, wholly original, and a joy to read."

-- Jessica Anya Blau, author of The Summer of Naked Swim Parties
and Drinking Closer to Home

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Fierce and funny” (Washington Post )

“Fathermucker is witty, realistic, and charming, replete with a father’s genuine love for his family. An entertaining choice for book clubs members of both genders, particularly those with young children.” (Library Journal )

“This brilliantly insightful novel explores the trials of modern fatherhood through one hectic day... Littered with hilariously genuine anecdotes, parental pathos, and a hearty dose of pop culture, this clever, comic, and compassionate novel will appeal to fans of Jim Lindberg and Jonathan Evison.” (Booklist )

“All kinds of funny-raucously, wickedly, sweetly, saucily, surprisingly, profanely funny…a wonderful novel, capturing in a single manic day the helpless ache of parenthood and the ceaseless flood of popular culture.” (Jess Walter, author of The Financial Lives of the Poets )

“A lively and keenly observed portrait of twenty-first century parenthood.” (Penthouse )

From the Inside Flap

A screenwriter, fledgling freelancer, and stay-at-home dad of two, Josh Lansky has held everything together during his wife Stacy's week-long business trip--until this morning's playdate, when he finds out through the mommy grapevine that Stacy might be having an affair.  What Josh needs is a break. He's not going to get one.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Original edition (October 4, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062059718
• ISBN-13: 978-0062059710
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #301,056 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars buy 3, give 2 away, read one., October 4, 2011

By 

S. Beaudoin - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fathermucker: A Novel (Paperback)

Funny and a little heartbreaking, sexy and more than a little subversive, insightful and allusive--not adjectives you'd necessarily think would describe a novel about 24 hours in the life of a harried stay-at-home dad. At least not based on my own occasional stay at home experience(s). But in Fathermucker, Greg Olear manages to squeeze all that and more into a single day, making even the most banal aspects of child-rearing (and, let's be honest, there's a lot of them) pretty damn entertaining. This is a book about parenting, about marriage, about gender dynamics, about pop culture--about what it means to be a good father, and a good husband.

Do we need any more of these types of books? I wouldn't have thought so, but the answer appears to be an emphatic yes.

The obvious antecedent is Little Children--as pointed out in the PW review, although they spell Tom Perrotta's name wrong--but aside from the surface element of having stay-at-home dads as central characters, the two books have little in common. Perrotta's main concern seemed to be telling an amusing but unabashedly ready-for-Meg Ryan story, while Olear is on the whole more ambitious, his subversion not just a product of afternoon adultery, but what treads deep (and frighteningly) in the water of the parental soul. By the end of the book, there's not much about Josh Lansky we don't know; his flaws are readily apparent. Olear channels Joyce more than he does Perrotta--although Fathermucker is way more fun-and much shorter-than Ulysses. At least I think it is, since I gave up on Ulysses halfway through and read Beyond The Valley of the Dolls instead.

At any rate, although there are elements of his debut novel, Totally Killer, that survive in this sophomore effort--the engaging first-person narrator, the rude obsession with pop culture, and the MacGuffin of a mystery--this is a different kind of work. It's a "Way We Live Now" sort of story that sharply elbows out a space in the queue to become the definitive stay-at-home dad novel.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great title, great read, October 4, 2011

By 

Charles Sterne (Decatur, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fathermucker: A Novel (Paperback)

Fathermucker takes place during one particularly tumultuous day in the life of Josh Lansky, aspiring screenwriter and stay at home dad to two pre-schoolers. Josh's interior monologue covers everything from ruminations on kids' tv to what's in the latest issue of US Weekly to hilarious pieces of an imagined screenplay depicting his wife's possible infidelity.

This book is a must read for parents of young children and frankly anyone who likes smart, funny, adult literature. The book achieves the difficult balance of being both wickedly satirical and compassionately humanist--the same sort of balance that guys like Nick Hornby and Tom Perrotta go for. Fathermucker deserves as wide an audience as either of those authors. It's that compelling/entertaining/laugh-out-loud funny.

One additional note: I won't spoil it, but there's one tour de force section towards the end of the book that will change the way you read Dr. Seuss forever. I was reading Cat in the Hat to my daughter just days after finishing this book, and let's just say it was weird. Just preparing you.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love it!, October 4, 2011

By 

Phil - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fathermucker: A Novel (Paperback)

What's in a day? Joyce answered with Ulysses: it is an epic. This is what happens to Josh Lansky in Fathermucker.
Screenwriter and freelance writer, he's working at home and is in charge of his two young children... and he is engulfed by the burden of caring for his lovely kids, but also by the agonizing question of whether or not his wife is cheating.
Located in New Platz, a suburban city on the East Coast, Greg Olear portrays the American family of the 21st century: fathers have become mothers, women are disoriented, and children are the little kings. In the vein of his previous novel, the brilliant Totally Killer, Greg Olear has sharpened his sense of satire and humor in a book destined to become cult, with passages of great sensitivity on Asperger Syndrome suffered by the son of John Lansky.
In all cases, I've been hooked!