From Publishers Weekly
After the birth of his first child, bestselling writer Lewis (
Moneyball) felt he was a stranger in a strange land, puzzled at the gap between what he thought he should be feeling and what he actually felt. While he expected to be overcome by joy, he often felt puzzled; expecting to feel worried over a child's illness or behavior, he often felt indifferent. Lewis attempts to capture the triumphs, failures, humor, frustration and exhilaration of being a new father during the first year of each of his three children's lives. In one especially hilarious moment, Lewis is in a hotel pool in Bermuda distantly observing his children. When some older boys start teasing his oldest daughter, the youngest daughter, three years old at the time, lets fly a string of profanities at the top of her lungs. The boys retreat and then regroup for a second attack; when they return, she lets fly another string and tells them that she has peed in the pool, causing the boys to go away. All the while, Lewis watches from afar, too embarrassed to claim this youngster as his own but also proud that she has handled herself so smartly. Although Lewis is correct that his fatherhood moments might be more interesting to him than to anyone else, his reflections capture both the unease and the excitement that fatherhood brings.
(June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“
Home Game, which was adapted from a series of
Slate essays and is an accordingly zippy read, is hilarious but painfully candid, one man’s uneasy reckoning with the potentially devastating consequences of parenting. It’s unsparing, but Lewis is as honest with himself as he’s been with his subjects. Grade: A-.” (
The Onion AV Club )
“It’s an engaging journal that selectively details how Dad grew up as well....Brief, clever and frank—a good gift for Father’s Day.” (
Kirkus Reviews )
“Lewis writes memorable, insightful, yet simple and brisk sentences as easily as the rest of us breathe.” (
Marc Tracy - The New York Times Book Review )
“Unabashedly frank, hilarious and sweetly sentimental....a somewhat daring and in many ways groundbreaking book about what it’s like to be a father in modern America....intensely honest.” (
Amy Scribner - BookPage )
“Lewis is an insouciant raconteur who can spin out even standard dad stories (about, say, sending a kid to school dressed outlandishly) without making them sound stale.” (
Ann Hulbert - Slate )
“His reflections capture both the unease and the excitement that fatherhood brings.” (
Publishers Weekly )
