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    Fathermucker: A Novel
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    Fathermucker: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Fathermucker: A Novel
    Ebook367 pages5 hours

    Fathermucker: A Novel

    By Greg Olear

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    “All kinds of funny—raucously, wickedly, sweetly, saucily, surprisingly, profanely funny…a wonderful novel.”
    —Jess Walter, author of The Financial Lives of the Poets

    “Deft and funny, true and real. If you read one book this year, read this one.”
    —Molly Jong-Fast, author of The Social Climber’s Handbook

    Senior editor at the online literary magazine The Nervous Breakdown and author of Totally Killer, author Greg Olear brings us a not-so-typical day in the life of stay-at-home dad Josh Lansky, juggling myriad fatherly responsibilities while dealing with the maddening realization that his  away-on-business wife just might be having an affair. Fathermucker is a sweet, heartrending, often hilarious look at family life from the dad’s perspective that Nick Hornby fans will most certainly respond to. As Jessica Anne Blau, author of Drinking Closer to Home and The Summer of Naked Swim Parties so insightfully points out, “Only a writer with the verve, daring, and great talent of Greg Olear could pull off a novel that deals with sippy cups, masturbation, autism spectrum disorder, affairs, and play-dates all at once.”

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 4, 2011
    ISBN9780062059727
    Unavailable
    Fathermucker: A Novel
    Author

    Greg Olear

    Greg Olearis the senior editor of the lit blog The Nervous Breakdown and the author of the novel Totally Killer. His work has appeared in therumpus.net, Babble.com,themillions.com, Chronogram, and Hudson Valley Magazine. A professor of creative writing at Manhattanville College, he lives with his family in New Paltz, New York.

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    Reviews for Fathermucker

    4/5

    40 ratings14 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Josh Lansky is a SAHD. Yep. That stands for Stay-At-Home-Dad, but lets just say that it isn't the only thing that acronym implies. Fathermucker is just the best kind of novel. It's a fictional story, but one that so many people will connect with! Mothers, fathers, people who aren't even parents but work with children. Each person will find their own hilarious piece of this Josh's story to fall in love with.

      Greg Olear manages to squeeze every minute and mundane detail about a day in the life of a stay at home parent into this book. Being a person who is not yet married, and one who hasn't started a family yet, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to really immerse myself in Fathermucker. Wrong. Maybe it's my history of working with children, but I found myself cracking up during Josh Lansky's comments about his daily life. From debating on whether or not to shower or eat (there's never time for both), to his inner thoughts on the people around him, I fell in love with every aspect of his musings. Josh Lansky isn't perfect. His flaws are bared for all to see.

      What really brought extra life to this story though is that Josh Lansky doesn't just have one child, he has two, and one of them has Asperger's Syndrome. I loved how much information about this syndrome was present in the book, and how honest Greg Olear was about how it changed the family dynamic. Josh Lansky has a fierce love for this children in this book. He's a father who, despite the exhaustion and slight mental breakdown, knows his kids inside and out. This is a book about family, about parenting, about marriage, and even about how thoughts sometimes (despite the fierce love) wander back to the time before children. As I said, brutally honest. Just also hilariously done.

      The references to pop culture in Fathermucker are many, and Greg Olear's ability to create the real world around his characters are fantastic. Reading this book is like watching a movie. I know authors are always going for the "show don't tell" method when writing. Kudos to Olear! A day in the life of his character, Josh Lansky, is complete with Facebook, Noggin, McDonalds, and the all important Moka Java for those poor exhausted parents.

      I'm rambling I know, and I'm not even sure I've done justice to this book. Here's what I'll wrap it up with. This is a hilarious book. It's honest, it's funny, it's a look into the life that most parents live but try not to share with the outside world. Yes, there is some language that people might be offended by, but it is a male point of view after all. I for one enjoyed it immensely, and hope that you will too!
    • 3/5
      Sometimes you just have one of those days where nothing goes right, and you let yourself get beat down and take it. But sometimes, as in Josh Lansky's case, you know you're going to have a bad day - his horoscope predicts a mere two-stars - and you can brace yourself for it. So Josh does, to the extent one can be prepared for anything when your wife is out of town and you're in charge of two children under five. That's actually Josh's every day life - he's a stay-at-home-dad, a screenwriter suffering from writer's block. He's been with his wife, Stacy, for ten years. She was an actress when they met, but instead of making theirs a Hollywood marriage, she stops acting and gets a marketing job. They leave New York City to move upstate, and Josh falls in with a handful of stay-at-home-moms who arrange playdates. This is where he finds himself when a mom tells him that Stacy is having an affair. And thus we are introduced to Josh's two-star day, which is the entire span of the book.

      Three hundred pages over the course of just one day actually works, since there is a bit of backstory, and Josh's imagination frequently runs wild. There were a lot of celebrity references that I could have done without, as well as the outspoken opinions. Josh is not necessarily an opinionated character, as I saw it, but every once in awhile some hatred for Republicans or tattoos would come out and ramble for several sentences, and it screamed "This is the author!" to me. There was also a weird thing where there would be italicized phrases in the middle of a sentence, which were occasionally song lyrics, or maybe catchphrases, or Josh's thoughts - I never quite got the point of them, and they interrupted the sentence, so I just started skipping over them. I don't think I missed anything.
      Ex: "Chris teaches at the Culinary Institute in Hyde Park, but his wife does the cooking at home and I get fish right on my dish.

      Overall, an entertaining book. I liked the conflicts that came up, and Josh handled them in a realistic way that I could identify with. I think stay-at-home-dads would especially like this book, because the focus seems to be on how they shouldn't be such a rarity. Also, the four-year-old son in the book has Asperger's, and there is a lot of nonfiction information about the condition, as well as autism, inserted nicely into the book.
    • 5/5
      Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Though my setting is different, and far more conservative, I drive that same dark blue Honda Odyssey and at time it felt like the author was pulling the very thoughts from my mind. Motherhood, like the author's view of fatherhood, is failure. Every day I go from thinking I'm the best mother in the history of mothers to thinking I am the worst mother that ever procreated. The fact that the author was willing to tell the truth about this is brilliant. Good on ya, Greg Olear/Josh Lansky, glad someone, especially someone wearing the same type of Target t-shirts as me, is willing to admit that sometimes parenting isn't all sunshine and roses, and sometimes you just want your kids to leave you alone. This is a great book for parents of either gender. Mr. Olear has knocked this one out of the park. He has a fantastic voice and I'm eager for more.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book! The viewpoint of a SAHD (Stay At Home Dad) was refreshing. Even men have insecurities, feel deficient, are unproductive, etc. All the things I assumed only SAHM's (Stay At Home Moms) felt. Within the story was also a glimpse into the life of a parent of a child with Asperger's, without being clinic or too analytical. I wish I knew for SAHD's to share this book with, but will certainly pass it on to all my friends.
    • 5/5
      After reading so many books from the mother's perspective, I love getting a chance to see the other side (I'm a mother myself). I also enjoyed discussing this book with my family and my husband, who says it rings true. The humor is spot on, but there's a serious side as well. This one will stay on my shelf for a long time to come!
    • 5/5
      Fathermucker is a hilarious and entertaining exploration of a day in the life of a stay-at-home dad. First-person narrator Josh Lansky is an aspiring screenwriter and father to two pre-school-aged children. His narration covers it all, good and bad, important and mundane. Recommended for all parents of both sexes.
    • 5/5
      Olear manipulated the average subject of parenting, made it humorous and yet sincere at the same time and not the least bit boring. Who really wants to read about parenting and possible spousal infidelity? It's been done, done-over and over-done; but Fathermucker does not follow the mold. The characters are relatable, lovable and authentic. Peek through the windows of any house on any American street and you could fit this family in. The books touches on reality so well you'd begin to wonder about the characters beyond the 24 hour gap you get to know them in. Ps. It is simply refreshing! Such an appropriate book at an appropriate time. I have a little one and I must admit it was nice to see from the perspective of a stay-at-home-DAD! I can't wait to pass this on to the next parent -mom or dad- that is ready to pull their hair out.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed the true-to-life tribulations of parenting young children, the loneliness, over-stimulation, exhaustion, and tedium. The parts about the protagonist's aspie son were fierce, honest, and sweet. I felt let down by the somewhat trashy romantic fantasies/sex scenes -- these felt lifted from a Jennifer Weiner book and seemed out of place. Also, I didn't like the integration of lines from Dr. Seuss and other childhood books into the text. Done briefly once it would have been charming, but it went on and on until I felt bludgeoned with the silly shtick.
    • 4/5
      Fathermucker is an interesting, sarcastic, humorous, and slightly depressing look at both modern fatherhood and modern parenting. Josh, our hero, is a stay-at-home Dad, or as he calls it a SAHD and the book tells the story of one tumultuous day in his life with two young children. The story starts a little unevenly, but by halfway through it picks up steam and the tale that unfolds is one I think both modern mothers and fathers can relate to. I enjoyed the Dad's point of view as much as I enjoyed seeing a man struggle with raising young kids while keeping a marriage intact just as many women I know, myself included have. Overall this is a thoughtful and enjoyable book that I think any parent can appreciate.
    • 3/5
      My wife looked at the book when it arrived and said, "that looks like the guy equivalent of the trashy beach novels I read." I was afraid she was right. Then I cracked it open . . . and I thought maybe it was worse. Olear pays attention to small detail on the level of Nicholson Baker, but unlike Baker, Olear has a sarcastic tone that just grated on me. More, he often used word play that feels like it's from a junior high English student. As I read, I kept flipping to the last page to calculate how many pages I had left. Then, something wonderful happened. About half way through the book, Olear backed off on the sarcasm a bit. He toned down the word play and cut down on the over-descriptive aspects and the book became enjoyable. He still had some slips with descriptive deviations long enough to make lose track of the main story, but they became rare. At that point, the descriptions of the main character, his children and other characters in the book started to really shine and I began to care about them. By the book's end, I found myself actually caring what happened to them.If the whole book had carried what the second half offered, I would have given this a 3 1/2 or 4 star. If the second half had offered what the first had, it would have been a 1 1/2 or 2. Olear has the chops, he just needs to reign himself in a little.
    • 4/5
      I originally thought this book was a memoir of sorts, instead of a novel. I guess it still could be - loosely based on all fathers out there. As half of a couple that knows parenthood is in their future it's always fun and enlightening to read about the not-so-fine parts of being a parent and seeing that crap happens and parents deal with it. The writer's style was very good, very "thought" process driven and unfiltered (this was both hilarious and more than I needed at different times). It was interesting that he set it up to cover "a day in the life"...because I know all of that stuff can happen IN ONE DAY. The twist at the end was unexpected and I'm surprised that after a day of sweating over his own wife's infidelities and thinking that she had made him look like a schmuck, that he would in turn do the same thing to her. Overall, a good and funny read if you can take being in the mind of a guy, lewd sex thoughts and all.
    • 4/5
      The suburbs of the Northeast have been fertile domestic-fiction territory for decades, but Greg Olear’s view of that landscape in Fathermucker, his second novel, is thoroughly contemporary. As many others have before them, Josh and Stacy Lansky left New York City for the Hudson Valley once they started a family, but the shape of that family is a little different. Having sold a screenplay that almost got produced a few years earlier, Josh has become a struggling work-at-home writer and stay-at-home dad to their two children, while Stacy brings in the steady income working in marketing at IBM. Their five-year-old son Roland is on “the spectrum,” and toddler daughter Maude is a handful in her own two-year-old way. At the end of a week of single parenting while Stacy is away on business, Josh is having a real two-star (out of five) day: there are mice in the walls of his house, there’s a preschool outing in the afternoon (during which he hopes to find an opportunity to pitch an interview to one of the other parents, a renowned punk-rock musician), he and Stacy keep getting each other’s voicemails...and he’s very distracted by a neighbor’s suggestion that she just might be cheating on him.Plotwise, this is clearly not new territory, but the framing is. The last few decades have made us increasingly conscious that parenting is a job. In some progressive circles, that job’s more likely to be viewed as an intensely child-focused full-time vocation, and one that doesn’t exclusively call mothers. Having said that, there aren’t many at-home dads at the playgroup and on preschool field trips in the Lanskys’ circle, and even fewer breadwinner moms. And having said THAT, the novel’s parent-centric aspects sound like everyday conversations at school pickup (or posts on a parent blog), and that extends to the particulars of raising a special-needs child.Much of Fathermucker sounds like everyday conversation, actually--everyday RIGHT NOW. I’m torn over whether this is a strength or a weakness. Olear uses some very specific pop-cultural references and gives his characters dialogue that places them firmly in the 2010s. I appreciated that the novel was so current, but wonder if those details might cause it to be dated quickly--can a book be TOO contemporary? Then again, Fathermucker could just as easily turn out to be an artifact marking and elaborating on a particular point in our social history.But regardless of how it holds up, it’s a great read at the moment. The style is modern--Josh’s internal monologue frequently goes stream-of-consciousness, and his speculations about Stacy’s alleged infidelities are presented in screenplay form--and while some of the characters’ specific concerns are very current, their larger ones are timeless. While it’s built around some elements that are certainly ripe for satire, Fathermucker mostly avoids that; rather, I found it intelligent and earnest, without taking itself too seriously. The details are sharply observed, and the commentary is on them is often very funny. I was thoroughly engaged by this novel, and at times I thought it was brilliant.
    • 4/5
      I am not kidding you, I laughed out loud so hard during several portions of this book. I laughed so hard, at one point, I thought I was going to have to have air pumped back into me. Greg Olear is one funny dude.This book is definitely male humor, though. There’s male moral standards too, because one of the ending scenes actually put me off a little (and kept me from rating the book a full five stars). That said, it was still a laugh out loud book – from the description of a dirty 07 Honda Odyssey minivan to the oh-so-apt description of a child’s meltdown. And, for good measure, let’s toss in some great descriptions and enlightenment on what it’s like to live with a child who has Asperger’s Symptom.In fact, an entire section of the book relays factual information on Asperger’s and contrasts it to daily life with a child who has it. Really, really powerful stuff – only kept from being despairing by the dry, humorous tone of the author.I found Josh’s voice to be perfect. The descriptions to be oh-so-perfect of his daily life, his struggles (morning and night rituals had me dying with laughter) to be genuine and his emotional turmoil to be so real that I felt myself aching for him.This is a book to read – mother or father, caregiver, aunts, uncles, it’s for everyone. The humor keeps it from being a “chick-lit” book and the title is enough to draw the interest of every male around me (and the parts I read out loud did their job as well).Fantastic addition to the fictional world of parenting – bravo Greg Olear. I’m just scared to find out just how much of his real life is portrayed in this book (go clean out that van!).
    • 4/5
      "Fatherhood is fear. Fatherhood is disappointment. Fatherhood is anger and envy and lust. And the surest guarantee of fatherly success is a Spock-like mastery of those base emotions. Mister Spock, not Doctor."But that's not Josh, who is having a bad week. He is (was?) a screenwriter with writers' block, a stay at home dad (SAHD) with his son who has Asperger's and his precocious drill sergeant of a toddler daughter. He's also on his own because his wife is away on business for the week. He's pitching a freelance interview for a parenting magazine with a famous punk-rock idle, handling his son's total meltdown in a pumpkin patch and trying get rid of the mice in his house. Then things got a whole lot worse--one of the women at his daughter's group playdate suggests that Josh's wife is having an affair. His creative and sleep-deprived screenwriter's imagination takes hold of him, and strange things begin to happen.This book is laugh outloud funny at times, and other times very intimate, focusing on the loneliness and frustration of parenting two children and trying to keep a marriage alive. It's a portrait of a suburban outsider trying to follow the complicated rules of the status quo, a man desperately loving his family while desperately hating his circumstances. Olear's voice is clear, snarky, jaded, hilarious, genuine and it propels the story along nicely.