A hilariously honest novel about fatherhood from one of America's most acclaimed authors Cy Riemer is the patriarch of a successful and loving Chicago family. But not all is copacetic in Cy's world. The scientific newsletter he publishes is foundering financially, his ex-wife still relies on him for money and intimacy, and he can never seem to find the time or the wherewithal to relax. Much of Cy's stress is caused by the trouble he has with his brilliant and duplicitous son, Jack. With a mixture of humor, grief, and astonishment, Cy becomes our tour guide to the Riemer family's museum of triumphs and tragedies. A comic and clear-eyed portrait of the quintessential worried father and the son who lives to torture him, A Father's Words is packed with Richard Stern's trademark wit, compassion, and insight.
"Richard Stern's novels are robustly intelligent, very funny, and beguilingly humane. He knows as much as anyone writing American prose about family mischief, intellectual shenanigans, love blunders-and about writing American prose."
Philip Roth
"Anyone who has read Richard Stern's previous novels won't need to be told he is an unusually crisp and intelligent writer, with a sharp edge to his wit; and in A Father's Words he runs true to form. . . . Excellent."
