{"product_id":"my-father-before-me-9781501131318","title":"My Father Before Me","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn award-winning poet's \"beautifully written\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Seattle Times\u003c\/i\u003e) portrait of an American family and his own coming of age in the 1960s and 1970s in the wake of his father's suicide. This memoir \"belongs on the special shelves we keep for the books we cannot quite forget\" (George Hodgman).\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe fifth of eight children, Chris Forhan was born into a family of secrets. He and his siblings learned, without being told, that certain thoughts and feelings were not to be shared. On the evenings his father didn't come home, the rest of the family would eat dinner without him, his whereabouts unknown, his absence pronounced but unspoken. And on a cold night just before Christmas 1973, long after dinner, the rest of the family asleep, Forhan's father killed himself in the carport. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Forty years later, Forhan \"excavates both his lost father and a lost era in American history\" (\u003ci\u003eBookpage\u003c\/i\u003e). At the heart of this \"fiercely honest\" (Nick Flynn) investigation is Forhan's father, a man whose crisp suits and gelled hair belied a darkness he could not control, a man whose striking dichotomy embodied the ethos of an era. Weaving together the lives of his ancestors, his parents, and his own coming of age in the 60s and 70s, Forhan paints an \"achingly beautiful\" (\u003ci\u003eBuffalo News\u003c\/i\u003e) portrait of a family \"in the tradition of Geoffrey Wolff\" (\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e). \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Poignant...affecting...Forhan describes his family's healing and acceptance with warmth, humor, and an admirable lack of bitterness\" (\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e). A family history, an investigation into a death, and a stirring portrait of an Irish Catholic childhood, all set against a backdrop of America from the Great Depression to the Ramones, \u003ci\u003eMy Father Before Me\u003c\/i\u003e is \"an exquisite example of the power of honesty\" (Jeannette Walls), \"a wonderfully engrossing book...essential for all parents and children, that is, all people\" (\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e, starred review).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Scribner Book Company\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/09\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781501131318\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 320\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.45lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.20h x 5.40w x 0.90d","brand":"Chris Forhan","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52161317109941,"sku":"9781501131318","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_5d67e596-4143-430d-b5b6-039e98dd4d67.jpg?v=1768317818","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/my-father-before-me-9781501131318","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}