Father's Day - by Buzz Bissinger (Paperback)

About the Book

The bestselling author of "Friday Night Lights" and "3 Nights in August" travels cross-country on a road trip with his son Zach, whose premature birth left him with a mix of remarkable skills and profound disabilities known as savantism.

Book Synopsis

Buzz Bissinger's twins were born three minutes--and a world--apart. Gerry, the older one, is a graduate student preparing to become a teacher. His brother Zach is a savant, challenged by serious intellectual deficits but also blessed with rare talents: an astonishing memory, a dazzling knack for navigation, and a reflexive honesty that can make him both socially awkward and surprisingly wise.

One summer, striving to understand the twenty-four-year-old son who remains, in many ways, a mystery, Buzz convinces Zach to join him on a cross-country road trip. As father and son drive from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, revisiting all the places they have lived together, Buzz learns to see the world through Zach's eyes. Father's Day is a powerful account of this journey, and a universal tale of the bond between parents and children.

"Grade: A . . . Gorgeous." -- Entertainment Weekly

"Blunt, tender, sometimes harrowing, and always affecting, Father's Day is a triumph." -- Susan Orlean, author of Rin Tin Tin and The Orchid Thief

From the Back Cover

Buzz Bissinger s twins were born three minutes and a world apart. Gerry, the older one, is a graduate student preparing to become a teacher. His brother Zach is a savant, challenged by serious intellectual deficits but also blessed with rare talents: an astonishing memory, a dazzling knack for navigation, and a reflexive honesty that can make him both socially awkward and surprisingly wise.
One summer, striving to understand the twenty-four-year-old son who remains, in many ways, a mystery, Buzz convinces Zach to join him on a cross-country road trip. As father and son drive from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, revisiting all the places they have lived together, Buzz learns to see the world through Zach s eyes. "Father's Day "is a powerful account of this journey, and a universal tale of the bond between parents and children.
Grade: A . . . Gorgeous. "Entertainment Weekly"
Blunt, tender, sometimes harrowing, and always affecting, Father s Day is a triumph. Susan Orlean, author of "Rin Tin Tin" and "The Orchid Thief"
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Buzz Bissinger is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of five books, including Friday Night Lights and Three Nights in August. He is a contributing editor for Vanity Fair and a sports columnist for the Daily Beast. He has written for the New York Times, the New Republic, and many other publications.

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Review Quotes

"Blunt, tender, sometimes harrowing, and always affecting, Father's Day is a triumph. Bissinger unfurls the whole fabric of love and pride and heartbreak and salvation that makes a family, with an honesty that will make you gasp." -- Susan Orlean, author of Rin Tin Tin and The Orchid Thief "Bissinger has the great writer's gift of showing us we are not alone. Here he explores the religion all parents share: that our children's essential goodness will somehow grant them safe passage through a rough world. What a book! Every parent should read it." -- Chris Matthews, host of Hardball and author of Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero "I loved this unflinching, heartbreaking, and ultimately triumphant tale of disability and difference, and what it means to be a father, a son, and a man." -- Jennifer Weiner, author of Then Came You and Fly Away Home "Buzz Bissinger's memoir -- a paean to his remarkable son -- is tender, funny, frightening at moments when love is re-stated; even brave -- which memoiristic writing rarely gets the chance to be. It also reads as unflinchingly true, which should give it a long and useful life in the reader's heart."　 -- Richard Ford "Father's Day is the story of a road trip like no other. Searing and heartfelt, this is not just an unforgettable portrait of a father and his son; it is a love story that speaks to the mystery, pain, and exhilaration of being human." -- Nathaniel Philbrick, author of Mayflower and The Last Stand "This brave and beautiful memoir gets at the core of what it means to be a parent -- how painful it can be, how scary it can get, and how rewarding it is. By facing a challenge that would try any of us, and beat many of us, Bissinger emerges a better man. He not only finds his son, but himself, and the reader finds something, too. After reading Fathers Day, I've rethought my assumptions about what makes a successful and worthy life. Ultimately, this is a mesmerizing story about how we can all be better." -- David Sheff, author of Beautiful Boy "Buzz Bissinger has given completely of himself in this moving book about his son Zach, who was born too small, too soon. There is the father's disappointment and guilt, his confusion and frustration, his wonder and love. That Zach has a twin brother, who grew up unscathed, and that Zach's mind is as divided as his father's emotions, makes the story all that more compelling. Father's Day is wonderfully, achingly written, with all the doubt that tells you how truthful it is." -- Frank Deford, author of The Old Ball Game and The Entitled "Every father of a special needs child should read this very insightful book." -- Temple Grandin, author of Thinking in Pictures and Animals in Translation "A fiercely honest memoir about the complex hard drive of a son's brain and the balky software of a father's heart. Though his story is singular, Bissinger makes it feel like part of that eternal saga -- fathers and sons trying to connect." -- J.R. Moehringer, author of The Tender Bar "Gorgeous and brutally honest . . . As much as this is a book for parents, who know well the crushing vulnerabilities of the job, it is also a story for grown children who understand what it means to love an imperfect paren --