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vkaz's review against another edition
3.0
This is a book of essays and musings on what it means to be a boy, a father and a husband, told in Chabon's hopeful and full-of-wonder style. I absolutely love his novels, and I wasn't expecting this to be quite the same. He's not creating the quirky worlds here that he has in his novels. He's writing about his own.
Chabon talks about his childhood and what he calls the loss of creativity and adventure that happened when adults started micromanaging the lives and imaginations of children. Pop culture references abound--anyone in the 40-50 age range will remember fondly the Lego sets, comic books and canceled TV shows (the '70s show Planet of the Apes) he mentions. I can't believe there is a whole chapter on Wacky Packages, the beloved, grossout sticker craze of the '70s. I loved those things. Now I find they were the beginning of a movement by adults to architect all the cool kid fads themselves!
There are beautiful moments of insight and truth here. But three quarters of the way through the book, I started to get tired of Chabon's life and his earnest struggles. I began to see too many of his personal cliches emerge. This is a good book, not to plow through in a sitting, but to pick up and read an essay or two from when you want some gentle, humorous perspective on parenting and life in our times.
Chabon talks about his childhood and what he calls the loss of creativity and adventure that happened when adults started micromanaging the lives and imaginations of children. Pop culture references abound--anyone in the 40-50 age range will remember fondly the Lego sets, comic books and canceled TV shows (the '70s show Planet of the Apes) he mentions. I can't believe there is a whole chapter on Wacky Packages, the beloved, grossout sticker craze of the '70s. I loved those things. Now I find they were the beginning of a movement by adults to architect all the cool kid fads themselves!
There are beautiful moments of insight and truth here. But three quarters of the way through the book, I started to get tired of Chabon's life and his earnest struggles. I began to see too many of his personal cliches emerge. This is a good book, not to plow through in a sitting, but to pick up and read an essay or two from when you want some gentle, humorous perspective on parenting and life in our times.
ella1801's review against another edition
4.0
Lovely, sweet, accessible--left me just as jealous of Ayelet as I've always been and also more appreciative of what variation I already have at home.
somanybookstoread's review against another edition
4.0
Chabon's essay collection topped even his Pulitzer prize-winning novel in my eyes. I enjoyed this as an unabridged audio book, read by the author. It was delightful. Chabon's essays are witty, intelligent, and interesting. I highly recommend this collection to any essay-lover or fan of Chabon's other work. "The Art of Cake" stood out as my favorite, followed by "To the Legoland Station." Sign me up for more Chabon!
eelsmac's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
4.5
ericfheiman's review against another edition
4.0
Ah, after the disappointment of Maps and Legends, Chabon returns to solid ground with this nonfiction collection. Endearingly frank and honest, keeping even a childless guy myself more than engaged with various observations around parenting, family and manhood (of the very fanboy nerdy variety).
tnew361's review against another edition
5.0
Great book. Now I know why his wife, Ayelet Waldman, is so crazy about him.
annepw's review against another edition
4.0
(2012 review)
Having read and enjoyed three of Chabon's books already ([b:The Mysteries of Pittsburgh|16697|The Mysteries of Pittsburgh|Michael Chabon|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1406253539s/16697.jpg|243634]: good, [b:The Yiddish Policemen's Union|16703|The Yiddish Policemen's Union|Michael Chabon|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386925449s/16703.jpg|95855]: very good, and [b:The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay|3985|The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay|Michael Chabon|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355094690s/3985.jpg|2693329]: sublime), I dove into my borrowed copy of Manhood for Amateurs with a mix of expectation and wariness. Expectation, because, having seen Chabon at his best, I was curious to get inside his head and life, and wariness because of the inevitability of disappointment.
Both scenarios were realized. Manhood is a very good memoir. Actually, it's a decent memoir and a very good collection of essays. Chabon's writing style is slightly pared down but his ideas are not, and Chabon has some incidents in his past that are very interesting to read about and shed good light on his writing. But taken as a whole, the memoir feels kind of disjointed. The final essay, the one which one hopes will tie everything together, is one of the weaker in the collection and leaves the very final taste in one's mouth one of slight disappointment. Chabon has also fallen victim to the trap (that also befalls [a:David Sedaris|2849|David Sedaris|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1213737698p2/2849.jpg]--actually, I frequently felt like I was reading the words of a more mature, erudite Sedaris) of snappily concluding essays by harkening back to an earlier symbol in the piece, which, when used in excess, is annoying (and it is always used in excess).
But Manhood is a worthy read. Read it and be surprised at Michael Chabon's total lack of what people euphemistically refer to as "artistic temperament." Chabon comes across as conscientious, responsible, smart, and honest--a person worthy of emulation. He could stand to lose the false modesty, though.
4/5. At some point I plan to revisit this one once I've got my own copy.
(October 2014 update)
I loved this book more than I did the first time. The remarkable thing about Chabon is his unflagging sweetness, and the sincerity of that sweetness; it never feels feigned, and it makes me happy to think of him raising his children in this affectionate, conscientious way. So often I find myself loathing the bland goodness of memoirists as expressed in their own memoirs. Chabon escapes the trap with his other hallmark traits of clear-eyed self-analysis and its counterpoint, analysis of the world. He has interesting things to say and, as could really go without saying, a stunning way of saying them. I just smiled my way through this book. Have I grown less critical in general? Or just of Chabon? 4/5, still. And I'll read it again--and make any father to my (nonexistent children) read it too.
Having read and enjoyed three of Chabon's books already ([b:The Mysteries of Pittsburgh|16697|The Mysteries of Pittsburgh|Michael Chabon|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1406253539s/16697.jpg|243634]: good, [b:The Yiddish Policemen's Union|16703|The Yiddish Policemen's Union|Michael Chabon|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386925449s/16703.jpg|95855]: very good, and [b:The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay|3985|The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay|Michael Chabon|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355094690s/3985.jpg|2693329]: sublime), I dove into my borrowed copy of Manhood for Amateurs with a mix of expectation and wariness. Expectation, because, having seen Chabon at his best, I was curious to get inside his head and life, and wariness because of the inevitability of disappointment.
Both scenarios were realized. Manhood is a very good memoir. Actually, it's a decent memoir and a very good collection of essays. Chabon's writing style is slightly pared down but his ideas are not, and Chabon has some incidents in his past that are very interesting to read about and shed good light on his writing. But taken as a whole, the memoir feels kind of disjointed. The final essay, the one which one hopes will tie everything together, is one of the weaker in the collection and leaves the very final taste in one's mouth one of slight disappointment. Chabon has also fallen victim to the trap (that also befalls [a:David Sedaris|2849|David Sedaris|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1213737698p2/2849.jpg]--actually, I frequently felt like I was reading the words of a more mature, erudite Sedaris) of snappily concluding essays by harkening back to an earlier symbol in the piece, which, when used in excess, is annoying (and it is always used in excess).
But Manhood is a worthy read. Read it and be surprised at Michael Chabon's total lack of what people euphemistically refer to as "artistic temperament." Chabon comes across as conscientious, responsible, smart, and honest--a person worthy of emulation. He could stand to lose the false modesty, though.
4/5. At some point I plan to revisit this one once I've got my own copy.
(October 2014 update)
I loved this book more than I did the first time. The remarkable thing about Chabon is his unflagging sweetness, and the sincerity of that sweetness; it never feels feigned, and it makes me happy to think of him raising his children in this affectionate, conscientious way. So often I find myself loathing the bland goodness of memoirists as expressed in their own memoirs. Chabon escapes the trap with his other hallmark traits of clear-eyed self-analysis and its counterpoint, analysis of the world. He has interesting things to say and, as could really go without saying, a stunning way of saying them. I just smiled my way through this book. Have I grown less critical in general? Or just of Chabon? 4/5, still. And I'll read it again--and make any father to my (nonexistent children) read it too.
ridgewaygirl's review against another edition
4.0
Have you ever gotten a bit of a crush on an author after reading a few of his books? Have you ever thought that someone who write with such insight and compassion must be a truly kind person? And have you then, having attended a lecture or read an interview of the author, found out he was really kind of a pretentious jackass? The opposite thing happened to me as I read Manhood for Amateurs. I've read a few of Michael Chabon's books and formed an image of him, not of a pretentious jackass, but of being a guy's guy and somewhat testosterone-fueled. Not quite Hunter S. Thompson, but moving in that direction. Which, it turns out, is utterly the wrong impression.
Manhood for Amateurs is a collection of Chabon's personal essays, in which he talks about childhood and marriage and having children of his own. In Willam and I he talks about his reaction to being commended on his parenting skills by a stranger:
I don't know what a woman needs to do to impel a perfect stranger to inform her in the grocery store that she is a really good mom. Perhaps perform an emergency tracheotomy with a Bic pen on her eldest child with simultaneously nursing her infant and buying two weeks' worth of healthy but appealing breaktime snacks for the entire cast of Lion King, Jr.. In a grocery store, no mother is good or bad; she is just a mother, shopping for her family. If she wipes her kid's nose or tear-stained cheeks, if she holds her kids tight, entertains her kid's nonsensical claims, buys her kid the organic non-GMO whole-grain version of Honey Nut Cheerios, it adds no useful data to our assessment of her. Such an act is statistically insignificant. Good mothering is not measurable in a discrete instant, in an hour spent rubbing a baby's gassy belly, in the braiding of a tangled mass of morning hair. Good mothering is a long-term pattern, a lifelong trend of behaviors most of which go unobserved at the time by anyone, least of all the mother herself.
So I'm not sure how I'll view the next novel of his that I read. I'm sure it will be just as full of male protagonists behaving like guys and engaging in manly adventures, but I wonder if I'll be reading it a bit differently, knowing that the author is a guy who cooks the meals and loves his family. Then again, maybe I'll run into an interview with him on Larry King or npr and discover that he actually is a bit full of himself. I hope not.
Manhood for Amateurs is a collection of Chabon's personal essays, in which he talks about childhood and marriage and having children of his own. In Willam and I he talks about his reaction to being commended on his parenting skills by a stranger:
I don't know what a woman needs to do to impel a perfect stranger to inform her in the grocery store that she is a really good mom. Perhaps perform an emergency tracheotomy with a Bic pen on her eldest child with simultaneously nursing her infant and buying two weeks' worth of healthy but appealing breaktime snacks for the entire cast of Lion King, Jr.. In a grocery store, no mother is good or bad; she is just a mother, shopping for her family. If she wipes her kid's nose or tear-stained cheeks, if she holds her kids tight, entertains her kid's nonsensical claims, buys her kid the organic non-GMO whole-grain version of Honey Nut Cheerios, it adds no useful data to our assessment of her. Such an act is statistically insignificant. Good mothering is not measurable in a discrete instant, in an hour spent rubbing a baby's gassy belly, in the braiding of a tangled mass of morning hair. Good mothering is a long-term pattern, a lifelong trend of behaviors most of which go unobserved at the time by anyone, least of all the mother herself.
So I'm not sure how I'll view the next novel of his that I read. I'm sure it will be just as full of male protagonists behaving like guys and engaging in manly adventures, but I wonder if I'll be reading it a bit differently, knowing that the author is a guy who cooks the meals and loves his family. Then again, maybe I'll run into an interview with him on Larry King or npr and discover that he actually is a bit full of himself. I hope not.
nightchough's review against another edition
4.0
Michael Chabon is a wonderful author. This book is small essays - slices of life - his perspectives on adulthood, parenthood, the bonds beween generations, and Daleks. He has an easy to read style, a good sense of humor, is self-deprecating as needed, while typically positive. At times this book made me reflect on my own life and how I interact with the people I know and love. That's a compliment to his writing ... stop reading me ... go read this book instead!