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Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father and Son

by Michael Chabon

Harper Collins Publishers Ltd.

Hardcover $32.99

“A father is a man who fails every day.”

At least that's what Michael Chabon says in “The Losers Club,” the opening piece in his new non-fiction collection Manhood for Amateurs. Ever since a humiliating attempt to start a comic book club in his teenage years, Chabon has suffered from an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy in his roles as a man, writer and father.

A yelet Waldman became semi-famous for declaring in a New York Times column that she loved her husband more than her children (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/fashion/27love.html). After receiving death threats, she went on Oprah to defend herself. I missed that episode (and every other Oprah episode since I returned to work last year), but heard a bit about the hullabaloo and was eager to read her new book, Bad Mother.