Friday Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of my father’s death. To remember him, I share one of his poems about reading. My father read to my brothers and me virtually every night when we were growing up, passing along a passion that became our own. In “The Retiring Candle,” he imagines an introverted candle retreating […]
Tag Archives: fathers and sons
Loud Sneezes, a Sign from the Gods
My loud sneezes, according to Homer, as a sign from the gods.
Remembering a Father’s Tenderness
In this poem about his father, Li-Young Lee remembers a tender moment that has led to his own tenderness as an adult.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Gift", Family, Father's Day, Li-Young Lee, love Comments closed
Great Political Novels Not Agenda Driven
Great political novels are rich in spiritual attitude. Poor ones are agenda driven.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Easter 1916", American Pastoral, Berger's Daughter, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Henry James, Ivan Turgenev, Joseph Conrad, Literary Theory, Nadine Gordimer, Natalia Ginzburg, Orhan Pamuk, Philip Roth, political novel, snow, Stendahl, V.S. Naipaul, Vargas Llosa, William Butler Yeats Comments closed
Sons Must Kill Their Fathers, Alas
There’s is no easy way for son’s to find their identities apart from their fathers, but they have no choice but to try.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Denis Diderot, Henry IV, Homer, Odyssey, Shakespeare, Stendahl, The Scarlet and the Black Comments closed
The Greatest Generation’s Citizen Kane
Charlie Kane sold to a bank Film Friday Several weeks ago I wrote about the impact that the movie Citizen Kane had on my father in the months before he was drafted into the army in 1942. I was so fascinated by his response that I collaborated with him on an article about what Citizen […]
My Three Sons and the Mystic Power of 3
Yesterday I was talking to my wife about our children—who, at 27 and 25, I admit are no longer children. Being the proud parents that we are, we were noting with wonder how they are identifying their gifts, building upon their strengths, and developing into fully self-actualized human beings. As we talked, however, we […]
On Literary Names and Destinies
Reynold, “Portrait of Sterne” Just as I was born into a literary name, so were Darien and Toby. Before telling the story, I will follow up on the allusion in my last post to Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged John Keats, Laurence Sterne, names, Tobias Smollett, Tristram Shandy, Upon First Looking into Chapman's Homer Comments closed
On Being Named after Christopher Robin
As I have been writing about fathers and sons in the past few posts, I shift today from my position of father to that of son and to the literary origins of my name. My father named me after Christopher Robin and recently told me that he envisioned having the kind of relationship with […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged A. A. Milne, House at Pooh Corner, Winnie the Pooh Comments closed
