Book of the Week - Manhood for Amateurs - Episode 3

Jason Butler Harner continues to read 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. When Michael Chabon was growing up the 1970s, he and his bicycle had the freedom of the neighbourhood. He and his friends played in the woods and explored the streets and empty lots of his Maryland town. But his own children, like all their contemporaries, are driven everywhere by over-protective parents and are never seen out on the streets. Chabon reflects on why has this happened and wonders what effect it is having on children's imaginations. 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.