kerryanndunn's review against another edition
4.0
Completely enjoyable, easy to read. An interesting glimpse into a day in the life of a stay at home dad: the highs, lows, politics, negotiations, meltdowns, triumphs, and everything in between. It was compelling throughout and funny to boot.
shelfimprovement's review against another edition
3.0
I feel bad, because I really wanted to like this book but I think I was ultimately just the wrong audience. Olear tells a day in the life of stay-at-home dad Josh, whose wife Stacy is out of town on business. One of the women in his kids' playgroup suggests that Stacy might be having an affair, and would-be screenwriter Josh spends his day hashing out the possibilities while wrangling two difficult preschoolers and anticipating his wife's return. Olear's witty narration is mostly charming - sometimes his harangues about psuedo-hippie uber-moms and teenybopper television got to be a bit much for me, but that's why I'm saying: wrong audience. If Jonathan Tropper or Matthew Norman were a little more Yo Gabba Gabba inclined, the result would be father-mucker. It's not bad, just not for me.
isthiswitty's review against another edition
4.0
I know a book is really, actually engrossing when every single line makes me want to go into the next room and read it aloud to the boyfriend.
lcline1981's review against another edition
Josh Lansky learns at his daughter's play date that his wife is having an affair. This whispered rumor is passed along just before things fall apart and the playdate ends. So, Josh is stuck for the rest of the day wondering about the truth of the accusations. Fathermucker takes place over the course of that day.
What drives the book is the humor and also the thoughtful discussion of the role of the Stay At Home Dad (or SAHD, as Josh calls himself). I think there is a dearth of literature that intentionally explores the topic of masculinity, especially in a realistic and lighthearted matter, and Olear is filling that void. Take for example this passage, which comes directly after an exchange between Josh and his exterminator, Joe:
Joe is the sort of guy who feels the need to constantly project his manhood, especially around an obvious inferior like me. Usually I find his compulsion toward machismo amusing. But today I'm in no mood. He derides my fatherly duties, the implication being that I'm less of a man than he is, because his line of work is predicated on my primal fears...but it's more than that: he owns his own business, draws an income, makes a decent living -- and I don't. No matter how certain I am that stay-at-home fatherhood will benefit my children more than a few extra dollars in the back, no matter how evolved and twenty-first-century my thinking, the fact remains that masculinity -- and by extension virility -- is inextricably linked to money.
Josh is a screenwriter, whose screenplay (sold and vaulted away somewhere) has earned enough to buy a house in their upscale community. However, his relationship to his role is complex. What I like about Olear's portrayal is that he doesn't simply flip the roles, allowing Josh to become a stereotypical mommy, while his wife Stacy is "ball-busting working woman." Olear wants to bust both of those stereotypes. He also doesn't portray Josh as a man who is completely satisfied with his station, basking in his own enlightened nature. He struggles, with both the philosophical aspects of his life and with the everyday.
The only complaint that I have about the book is that it is sometimes a little too clever. Josh is kind of a cheeseball, and his jokes can be over-the-top. Although I certainly appreciate the book's humor, what I appreciate more is that it isn't a one-liner, but a complex look at a modern family. And it is funny. There are lots of great jokes and descriptions of earthy, yuppie parents, but at the heart Olear portrays a group of people just trying to navigate through the complexity of society and to have loving families (with an occasional unforgivably bad seed).
***I received this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
What drives the book is the humor and also the thoughtful discussion of the role of the Stay At Home Dad (or SAHD, as Josh calls himself). I think there is a dearth of literature that intentionally explores the topic of masculinity, especially in a realistic and lighthearted matter, and Olear is filling that void. Take for example this passage, which comes directly after an exchange between Josh and his exterminator, Joe:
Joe is the sort of guy who feels the need to constantly project his manhood, especially around an obvious inferior like me. Usually I find his compulsion toward machismo amusing. But today I'm in no mood. He derides my fatherly duties, the implication being that I'm less of a man than he is, because his line of work is predicated on my primal fears...but it's more than that: he owns his own business, draws an income, makes a decent living -- and I don't. No matter how certain I am that stay-at-home fatherhood will benefit my children more than a few extra dollars in the back, no matter how evolved and twenty-first-century my thinking, the fact remains that masculinity -- and by extension virility -- is inextricably linked to money.
Josh is a screenwriter, whose screenplay (sold and vaulted away somewhere) has earned enough to buy a house in their upscale community. However, his relationship to his role is complex. What I like about Olear's portrayal is that he doesn't simply flip the roles, allowing Josh to become a stereotypical mommy, while his wife Stacy is "ball-busting working woman." Olear wants to bust both of those stereotypes. He also doesn't portray Josh as a man who is completely satisfied with his station, basking in his own enlightened nature. He struggles, with both the philosophical aspects of his life and with the everyday.
The only complaint that I have about the book is that it is sometimes a little too clever. Josh is kind of a cheeseball, and his jokes can be over-the-top. Although I certainly appreciate the book's humor, what I appreciate more is that it isn't a one-liner, but a complex look at a modern family. And it is funny. There are lots of great jokes and descriptions of earthy, yuppie parents, but at the heart Olear portrays a group of people just trying to navigate through the complexity of society and to have loving families (with an occasional unforgivably bad seed).
***I received this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
jmeston's review against another edition
2.0
Bloggy. Sometimes in a good way (moment by moment of the chaos that is life as caregiver for multiple toddlers). Sometimes not (so many brand names). Very first world problems, he seems not to notice that his dilemmas (and all the fucking brand names) place him at the upper end of the dollary spectrum. Mostly enjoyable. The ending was comic, I laughed out loud.
Spoilers follow.............
But at the same time it was a shallow swipe at nonmonogamy in the service of shoring up the beloved nuclear family. Whew! I didn't do a certain set of physical acts with person X, thus validating my love for my spouse and children.
Spoilers follow.............
But at the same time it was a shallow swipe at nonmonogamy in the service of shoring up the beloved nuclear family. Whew! I didn't do a certain set of physical acts with person X, thus validating my love for my spouse and children.
japplevines's review against another edition
3.0
A fun and amusing read about parenting young children from a SAHD perspective.
sshabein's review against another edition
4.0
Fathermucker is a quick-but-satisfying read, and certainly one with which less-uptight parents will identify. The question of "Is Stacy having an affair?" propels us to the very end, and it goes for self-deprecation over melodramatics. Olear makes us consider the definitions of honesty and identity within our day-to-day life, and I am officially a fan.
howifeelaboutbooks's review against another edition
3.0
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.
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.
drewsof's review against another edition
4.0
A great second novel from Mr. Olear (albeit still stuffed overmuch with pop culture references.....) about modern fatherhood. I read this book and felt tied into the great continuum of males on this planet - from youth to adolescence to adulthood to fatherhood and beyond, there are certain truths that I think you just sort of... suddenly understand. I've been thinking about these things a lot recently (no worries, folks - even without this book, I'm quite happy waiting on the children thing for QUITE some time yet) and so this book hit me at the right time. Wonderful. Now, if we could just do something about the pop culture references......
More talk of fatherhood, pop culture references, and man: http://wp.me/pGVzJ-hu
More talk of fatherhood, pop culture references, and man: http://wp.me/pGVzJ-hu
hdbblog's review against another edition
5.0
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!
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!