What My Father and I Don’t Talk About: Sixteen Writers Break the Silence

Novelists, poets, and essayists reflect on their relationships with their fathers in this intense companion piece to Filgate’s 2019 anthology, What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About. There are a few lighthearted selections, such as Kelly McMasters’s soulful account of bonding with her reserved father over his passion for gardening. However, most entries are more unflinching than feel-good. For instance, in the searing “You Knew About That,” Heather Sellers mournfully recalls how her alcoholic, absentee father’s chronic reticence hampered her attempts to reconnect with him toward the end of his life. Elsewhere, Nayomi Munaweera discusses how taboo around divorce kept her Sri Lankan parents from ending their arranged marriage until their 80s despite constant bickering and her father’s occasional bouts of violence; Jaquira Díaz describes convincing her father to open up about a rumored son from a relationship he’d had during a brief stint in New York City before moving back to Puerto Rico in the 1970s; and Robin Reif recounts the emotional devastation wrought by her father’s preference for his son, which left her competing with her brother for her father’s affection while her brother withered under the pressure to live up to his father’s expectations. Though the devastating entries occasionally threaten to emotionally exhaust readers, there’s no denying their poignancy and power. Readers will want to keep tissues handy. Agent: Mel Flashman, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (May)