Wearing Dad's Head [Paperback]

Barry Yourgrau (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The author of A Man Jumps Out of an Airplane (Sun, 1984) writes of childhood and parents, of lust and death with humorous charm. He is at his best describing Bo-Peep-like Shepherdesses scrapping like harlots, pirates attacking suburbia, or the man, in "Habeas Corpus," who discovers his girlfriend in a pool of blood only to return to the room to find her reading. "Can't you read something besides those horrible murder mysteries?" he asks. All the pieces are short, a paragraph to at most a few pages, and thus many are disappointingly no more than fragments or vignettes. After awhile fathers in soap bubbles or dressed as women, cows wearing lingerie, or safaris down the street can seem tedious, but the absurb remains vividly rendered. Peter Bricklebank, English Dept., City Coll., CUNY
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing (May 12, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155970487X
• ISBN-13: 978-1559704878
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,662,422 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wearing Dad's Head, December 24, 1999

By 

M. Ching (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wearing Dad's Head (Paperback)

Wearing Dad's Head is a wonderful book of short stories written in the inimitable style of Barry Yourgrau. Reading his page long short stories is like being caught in a dream: anything can and frequently does happen. Wearing Dad's Head is entertaining, but the author's "A Man Jumps out of an Airplane" is a more creative and illuminating example of his work.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brother Grimm for the next century, June 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Wearing Dad's Head (Paperback)

This is second Barry Yourgrau book I've read-- after his newest, Haunted Traveller, which is a wonder. This is another kind of wonder. To wit, the narratives of a son (as a boy, as a man, and interchangable) and his parents. But family life through the nakes looking glass of the subconscious, of the chuild's eye. It's some of the most vivid & gleeful & wildly touching writing I've ever encountered. This has been my reading revelation this spring-- Barry Yourgrau. Wherever he is (in an apmnt, in a madhouse, already lifted up to heaven), I salute him. This book is, as they say, a classic. Couple more to go.

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the best books ever, June 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Wearing Dad's Head (Paperback)

short sharp pieces about the family. must read