In this debut memoir, a gay Long Island vintner returns home to rural North Dakota to find his estranged father dying of cancer. Bequeathed a box of tools, Prezler goes about building a handmade canoe, grieving his father's death and reflecting on the complexities of inheritance and the healing power of creativity.
... [an] insightful, lyrical prodigal-son memoir ... Little and Often proves to be a rich tale of self-discovery and reconciliation. Resonating with Robert Pirsig’s classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, it is a profound father-and-son odyssey that discovers the importance of the beauty of imperfection and small triumphs that make extraordinary happen.
Readers learn along with Preszler as he works; he thoughtfully doles out historical details over the course of the boat's construction, as he reveals the family's background. Insightful and humorous, Preszler's memoir is a deep dive to find the father he longed for and the confidence to be his own man.
The author writes with raw honesty about the closeness he shared with his father as a child, and how they became estranged over the years, moreseo after Preszler's college graduation ... A thoughtful and well-written memoir, this book will appeal to readers who have difficult relationships with family and those who find craftwork healing.
