momadvice's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Wade Rouse is a bestselling author perhaps best known for his beach reads written under the pen name Viola Shipman.
His publicist, Kathleen Carter, featured in Podcast Episode 27: A Day in the Life of a Book Publicist, sent a review copy of this moving memoir that was so beautiful that it will now be part of our 2023 book club year.
Wade's story begins as a queer kid who grew up in a conservative Ozarks community. He and his father could not be more different, and his father is both brutally unaccepting and disapproving of Wade.
It isn't just his sexual identity that baffles his father. His creative endeavors, writing career, and political leanings also baffle him.
Despite their differences, they do find common ground in one thing....baseball. Rouse shares the most moving portrait of father and son as they use this sport as glue to bind them when they can never see eye-to-eye.
Rouse also tackles the complex terrain of parenting an older parent when you have grown up in a challenging relationship. His grace for his dad and ability to find commonality in polarizing times make this an important and essential read for ANY reader. How do we find common ground when we feel so differently?
I can't recall a more moving memoir of father and son than this one. It left me in a puddle, and I marveled how Rouse could pull in a reader like me who couldn't care a bit about the game of baseball to be wholly enveloped in their shared love of the sport.
Wade will join us for our 2023 book club year, and I'll be recording that conversation with him next month. I can't wait to talk to him about this book and more about his career writing under his pen name Viola Shipman
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