The Boy He Left Behind

A Man's Search for His Lost Father

Nonfiction, Family & Relationships, Parenting, Fatherhood, Family Relationships, Death/Grief/Bereavement, Biography & Memoir
Cover of the book The Boy He Left Behind by Mark Matousek, Penguin Publishing Group
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Author: Mark Matousek ISBN: 9781101659212
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group Publication: February 1, 2001
Imprint: Riverhead Books Language: English
Author: Mark Matousek
ISBN: 9781101659212
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication: February 1, 2001
Imprint: Riverhead Books
Language: English

“A riveting story in the hands of a master storyteller.”—James McBride, The Color of Water
 
“I was four years old when my father came back to kidnap me,” begins this gripping memoir about Matousek’s search for James Matousek, the drifter father he never knew. Described by the New York Times as “part reminiscence, part detective story, part spiritual musing,” this memoir is more than the story of one man’s search for his father; it is also a look at the meaning of life and how fathers contribute to that meaning.

Growing up in a family of troubled women (Matousek’s sister committed suicide when the author was 29), he describes the turmoil of growing up “fatherless in America”—an experience shared by millions of children in what sociologists have called the Age of the Absent Father—and the difficult, ultimately successful, struggle to figure out what being a man really means in an age of shifting definitions and evolving sexuality. With the tension of a mystery story, the climax occurs when Matousek meets a man he believes to be his father. But is he? And does Matousek, who has reconciled with his mother as she lay dying, really care? These are just two questions leading to this memoir’s surprising conclusion.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

“A riveting story in the hands of a master storyteller.”—James McBride, The Color of Water
 
“I was four years old when my father came back to kidnap me,” begins this gripping memoir about Matousek’s search for James Matousek, the drifter father he never knew. Described by the New York Times as “part reminiscence, part detective story, part spiritual musing,” this memoir is more than the story of one man’s search for his father; it is also a look at the meaning of life and how fathers contribute to that meaning.

Growing up in a family of troubled women (Matousek’s sister committed suicide when the author was 29), he describes the turmoil of growing up “fatherless in America”—an experience shared by millions of children in what sociologists have called the Age of the Absent Father—and the difficult, ultimately successful, struggle to figure out what being a man really means in an age of shifting definitions and evolving sexuality. With the tension of a mystery story, the climax occurs when Matousek meets a man he believes to be his father. But is he? And does Matousek, who has reconciled with his mother as she lay dying, really care? These are just two questions leading to this memoir’s surprising conclusion.

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