Dear Dad: 2letters from an Adult Child

Writing to his late father, for whom he was named, the comic recalls growing up in small-town Minnesota as one of 11 children. It is the material of his comic routines, praised as gentle fun about a wacky family. The reader finds, however, that Anderson is an alchemist, transforming misery into the gold of his career. The family as revealed here was poor and abused by an alcoholic father, once a trumpet player with the Hoagy Carmichael band but whose later poor-paying jobs made him increasingly bitter. The author writes of siblings whose adult lives were badly affected by their drunken, hostile father whom they nevertheless remember with affection. In this poignant, touching memoir Anderson confronts his own insecurities and guilts and comes to understand the parent he had never been close to. The final letter ends, ``I love you.'' 75,000 first printing; $75,000 ad/promo; BOMC alternate; author tour. (Dec.)