The Boy He Left Behind: A Man's Search For His Lost Father - Softcover

Matousek, Mr Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1492745634 ISBN 13: 9781492745631

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2008

Synopsis

Search-Cover“I was four years old when my father came back to kidnap me,” begins this gripping memoir about Matousek’s search for James Matousek, the drifter father he never knew. Described by the New York Times as ” part reminiscence, part detective story, part spiritual musing,” this memoir is more than the story of one man’s search for his father; it is also a look at the meaning of life and how fathers contribute to that meaning. Growing up in a family of troubled women (Matousek’s sister committed suicide when the author was 29), he describes the turmoil of growing up “fatherless in America” – an experience shared by millions of children in what sociologists have called the Age of the Absent Father – and the difficult, ultimately successful, struggle to figure out what being a man really means in an age of shifting definitions, evolving sexuality, and “breaking out the man box” of stereotyping and patriarchy. With the tension of a mystery story, the climax occurs when Matousek meets a man he believes to be his father. But is he? And does Matousek, who has reconciled with his mother as she lay dying, really care? These are just two questions leading to this memoir’s surprising conclusion. Praise for The Boy He Left Behind “Mark Matousek’s memoir The Boy He Left Behind begins with the gripping sentence, ‘I was four years old when my father came back to kidnap.’ Part reminiscence, part detective story, part spiritual musing, the book is more than the story of one man’s search for his father, it is also a look at the meaning of life and how fathers contribute to that meaning.” -The New York Times Book Review “This thoughtful and lovingly rendered portrait of an American childhood is a refreshing addition to the genre. Matousek not only tells his own story but brilliantly evokes the troubled lives of his mother and sisters with humor, honesty, and above all, compassion.” -Kathleen Norris, author of The Cloister Walk and Amazing Grace “A riveting story in the hands of a master storyteller. Mark Matousek has written a family memoir that is tight and revealing. This is one fine book.” -James McBride, author of The Color of Water “[A] searing memoir....The writing is exhilarating...deeply soulful, compassionate, and self-scrutinizing. It is an explosive memoir filled with prose that sings, one that provokes readers to question where we come from and what our places are in this world. Matousek...writes from the heart. Read this book” -Los Angeles Magazine “Matousek’s account of his search for the father he hadn’t seen since he was four [is] sharp and funny, thanks to the punchy dialogue and dead-on character sketches.” -Elle “Interweaving the frustrating suspenseful search for his long-lost father with unsparing recollections of a fatherless boyhood and his confrontation with a life-threatening disease, Mark Matousek expertly guides you through the particulars of his life into a harrowing meditation on the difficulties of becoming a man in a country without fathers. The Boy He Left Behind is beautifully crafted, artful and inspiring. It merits a place alongside the late Paul Monette’s masterwork, Becoming a Man; Half a Life Story. Like Monette, Matousek’s triumph is twofold - In the book he has written, and in the man he has become. Matousek’s probing memoir of lost childhood and found history celebrates the power of manhood.” -The Utne Reader “Mark Matousek has produced [a] riveting account of his search–at age 38, with the help of a private detective–for the father who abandoned him at age four. A searing meditation on the psychic harm suffered by men and women without fathers, this wise odyssey wrestles with questions of life and death and the search for the meaning of one’s existence.” -Publishers Weekly (starred review)

About this title

Review:

"I was conceived on a bathroom floor by a woman trying to forget herself and a man who materialized out of nowhere," Mark Matousek tells us. His father soon dematerialized, turning up for the last time in 1961 to make an unsuccessful attempt to kidnap 4-year-old Mark. Thirty-five years later, now HIV-positive, Matousek decides to hire a detective to look for the man he never knew. His compassionate, startlingly funny memoir mingles the tale of that quest with recollections of his troubled youth, a reconstruction of his parents' early lives and his mother's 14-year affair with a married man, tender portraits of his three sisters, and a loving depiction of his new boyfriend, Louis, whose support helps Matousek grapple with his past. Hilarious character sketches of everyone from the oddball private eye to a slick Manhattan magazine editor lighten the dark shadows cast by many of Matousek's memories, including one sister's suicide and his mother's admission that "I should never have had you kids." In Matousek's complex rendering of the world, there are no easy epiphanies or shortcuts to wisdom--which will come as no surprise to readers of his previous book, Sex Death Enlightenment. But there are sturdy friendships, hard-won courage, and the hope of lasting love. --Wendy Smith

About the Author:

A former editor at Interview magazine, Mark Matousek has written for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, The New York Times Magazine, The Village Voice, Utne Reader, Common Boundary, Details, and Yoga Journal, among other publications. He is the author of Sex Death Englightenment, which was nominated for two Books for a Better Life awards. Matousek divides his time between New York City and East Hampton, New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1492745634
• ISBN 13: 9781492745631
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 272