It’s Father’s Day, and hopefully you’re able to spend it with the guy who raised you. In honor of the day, we’ve selected five books that center on gay dads, gay sons, daddies and other father figures. Grab a copy of one or more and enjoy.
Does This Baby Make Me Look Straight?
By Dan Bucatinsky
What It’s About: Whether it’s when his daughter tricks him into smelling his finger (you’ll never forget this one) or cruising “CuteGaySalesGuy” when Daddy has to take his kid “potty,” Bucatinsky’s stories detail the L.A. couple (he and partner Don Roos are the wit behind Web Therapy, starring Lisa Kudrow, and other comedies) and their baby-rearing adventures.
Daddy Quotient: While parents telling stories about their little ones can get old fast, you’ll be laughing your ass off to about two gay dads with two wonderful adopted kids.
In One Person: A Novel
By John Irving
What It’s About: The story is centered around a bisexual man attracted to men, women, and transgender women. So while there may not be a traditional father-son plot point, it certainly explores ideas surrounding masculinity and gender.
Daddy Quotient: Irving has told strange tales of fathers or the fatherless, but this one is more personal. He recently explained in a discussion with fellow author and friend Edmund White that he was partially driven to write the book for his son, Everett having a gay son made me want to write this novel sooner rather than later; I remember wishing that Everett could read In One Person while he was still in his late teens or early twenties.” So think of it as a gift from a father to a son.
A Sense of Direction
By Gideon Lewis-Kraus
What It’s About: Lewis-Kraus is determined to live a life different than his father’s, who remained closeted until midlife, so he starts out on a series of pilgrimages. The final one includes the author, his father, and his brother on a mass migration to the tomb of a famous Hasidic mystic in the Ukraine. High stress and hijinks ensue—with plenty of insight into what it means to resist one’s family “heritage” and find some answers.
Daddy Quotient: An irascible gay rabbi for a father? You betcha there’s plenty of daddy issues here to unravel.
The Swimming-Pool Library
By Alan Hollinghurst
What It’s About: While this is book that made Hollinghurst into an sensation and one of our classic gay authors, it might not be right for all dads: It’s got some sex. Okay, a lot of sex. While 25-year-old Will, the protagonist, has plenty of issues with his father and grandfather, the main story revolves around his relationship with a man “of fantastic seniority,” 85-year-old Lord Chalres Nantwich.
Daddy Quotient: It’s a daddy-son bond that has inspired many a fantasy, by exploring the intimacy (and complications) of a May-December romance.
Assisted Loving: True Tales Of Double-Dating With My Dad
By Bob Morris
What It’s About: Subtitled “True Tales of Double Dating With My Dad,” Morris is a gay son who gets to tag along with his 80-year-old father, Joe, who is now single and still plenty horny. At the same time, Morris obsesses with his own problems as a flabby, middle-aged guy looking for love in Manhattan’s youth-obsessed gay scene, while also turning into a bit of a yenta for fun-loving dad.
Daddy Quotient: This breezy memoir will get you thinking about how much your own perceptions of Dear Old Dad are colored by your own expectations—and why parents aren’t the only ones who feel disappointed when their family member doesn’t quite adhere to those psychic constraints.
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Harry
These books look great! I can’t wait to begin reading some of them!
Matt
The John Irving book looks very good the rest I will skip. I’m not a parent so the first book about “Gay” dads I have no point in reading.
Some Random Guy
“hopefully you’re able to spend it with the guy who raised you.”
I’m afraid that a lot of your readership has the attitude of: “hopefully I’ll be able spend the day 3,000 miles away from the guy who ignored me, when he wasn’t beating me up for being gay, and hopefully he’s passed out in front of the TV game with a bottle and a six pack, as usual… or maybe he’s in hell and nobody told me yet about the funeral.”
And in the case of most fathers… come on, reading a book? A book, since high school? Really?
zrisso
Some new children’s books for children of gay dads I thought would be cute gifts for first-time gay dads celebrating Father’s Day: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085E40OU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwzachrissoc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0085E40OU