Book of the Week - Manhood for Amateurs - Episode 1

Jason Butler Harner reads from Pulitzer prize-winning author Michael Chabon's moving, warm and witty memoir about life as a husband, father and son. In exploring what it means to be a man today, Chabon reflects on the personal and family history that haunts him even as it's being written every day. At the centre of a large and complex family, and with four young children, Chabon evokes memories of his childhood, of his parents' marriage and divorce and of moments of painful adolescent comedy. In this first episode an encounter in a supermarket leads him to remember his own father and considers the changing nature of fatherhood today. Why is it that, even as a father completely involved in the day-to-day lives of his children, so much less expected of him than of his wife? Michael Chabon is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of seven novels including The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and The Yiddish Policeman's Union. He has been described by the Guardian as 'a spectacular writer' and by the New York Times as 'one of his generation's most eloquent voices'. Jason Butler Harner has starred in films such as The Changeling with Angelina Jolie, as well as numerous TV series including Law and Order and John Adams. An accomplished stage actor, he has just appeared on the London stage in Serenading Louie at the Donmar Warehouse. Producer: Jane Greenwood. This is a Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.