IN MY FATHER'S FOOTSTEPS

For most people, the death of a parent can bring a wave of self-reflection and consideration about one's place in the world. For Matthews, the loss of his father, poet and teacher William Matthews, sparks an even more intense journey into memory and meaning. At first, his memoir seems to be a dreamy valentine, complete with poetic phrases about the emptiness of the poet's apartment and Matthews wondering if his dad's cat had gone to its owner, "confused by the fallen body, crouching with him in the tub, leaning into the discharged heat coming off his body." But the romanticism quickly ebbs as Matthews contemplates how fully he has, indeed, followed in his father's footsteps. Not only did Matthews become a writer, poet and teacher himself, but he imagines parts of his father's life as his father might have lived them. He gives as much weight to his father's affairs with students as he does to his own memories, mixing recollection, reality and hypothesis. Because Matthews's thoughts bounce through time and include some unnecessary scenes, the work is at times patchy. Usually, however, the intricate weave deftly shows that William Matthews was more than an idealistic, larger-than-life figure to his son. Rather, he could be wondrous and infuriating, and Matthews doesn't flinch from describing the hurt and anger he sometimes felt growing up. Still, this is not a tiresome laundry list of complaint tempered with some lush, loving moments. Rather, it's a glimpse of two lives and a look at how complicated a father-son relationship can become, even when one member is gone. Illus. Agent, Diana Finch. (Jan.)

FYI: Houghton Mifflin will simultaneously publish Search Party: Collected Poems by William Matthews (reviewed on p. 59).