From Publishers Weekly
The stay-at-home dad isn't such an anomaly these days-newspapers run popular-trend features about him, and he himself might write a book about the job (e.g. David Eddie's Housebroken) but the world may have never encountered such a superfather as Stockler seems to be in this parenting memoir. Already an experienced dad-though not an official stay-at-homer, he's the primary caretaker of his two-year-old son Asher (his wife, Roni, is a high-powered New York lawyer)-Stockler nevertheless faces a new and daunting level of responsibility when Roni becomes pregnant with triplets. With keen wit (Stockler has worked as a jokewriter for Jay Leno and writes a humor column for Esquire), he chronicles the difficult pregnancy, offers a dramatic and moving description of the babies' birth, and describes escapade after sleepless escapade with three growing newborns and a toddler. Parents will laugh out loud during the "Lost in the Supermarket" chapter, in which Stockler must strategically position his wagonful of children so that it's far from the bagel display without being close to the muffins-"I made that mistake once and muffins flew through the air like antiaircraft fire"-as well as try to keep one triplet from licking raw chicken juice, another from launching herself from the wagon, and another from freaking out over breakfast cereal. (Asher, four by this time, charms throughout.) They will also appreciate the sometimes startling honesty with which he describes family relationships and the challenges of parenting. Nevertheless, some will wish the book had a wider scope-it gains depth when it considers larger contexts, like the prejudice Roni faces as a working mother when the family moves to the suburbs, but it does this only rarely and briefly. Also, it suffers from some poor editing-the structure is somewhat loose and repetitions abound. But these flaws ultimately don't detract from this book's overall appeal, which should extend even to those fathers who have just one newborn to contend with.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
If you've ever wondered what it might be like to have your family suddenly doubled in size, check out this extremely funny, extremely perceptive memoir by the author of
Esquire's bimonthly "Crazy Talk" column. Already the parents of a three-year-old boy, Stockler and his wife find themselves expecting triplets, and nothing will ever seem quite the same again. The author documents the experience from the get-go (the joyful yet surreal news that they're going to have three little babies), through the months leading up to the birth, and on to the first precious years of the triplets' lives. The book is charming and tender, with moments of outright hilarity (the author is, after all, a humor writer). Stockler's voice is fresh and memorable: it's hard to forget his description of him and his wife, learning of the pregnancy, as confused as "dogs dropped onto the surface of a strange and dogless planet," or as numb and soft as "frozen sticks of butter defrosting." Great fun.
David PittCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
