Moves back and forth through time as Junod tries to untangle his father’s convoluted past, which turns out to be darker than he ever could have imagined ... Junod’s stemwinder of a title comes from a Led Zeppelin track, and the book, too, moves like a song, drawing you in with its melody before delivering an emotional wallop. Some of the revelations in this book are truly startling.
One of the great literary tributes to a complex paterfamilias in recent memory ... The first half is exhilarating; the second half is a huge bill come due ... Confronts readers with a perplexing question: Can someone be a good father but a bad man?
Tom Junod is a master magazine writer. His prose shows decades of training, close work, craft learning. It’s about as well tended as a body in a spa ... His book is a magnum opus, the culmination of a career, the story that explains all the other stories.
Staggering ... Junod writes that he 'became a writer in order to write this book,' and that is felt in his steady hand, elegant prose, and dogged, dizzying hunt for every kernel of truth.
Shines a light on Junod’s upbringing, while simultaneously untangling the threads of a complicated family history ... For many of us, the attempt to truly know our parents will inevitably fall short ... Junod reconciles the contradictions of his father’s life and works through his own conflicted feelings about that legacy.
Excruciatingly candid ... Though the pacing sags a bit in the middle, this is a gripping study of a larger-than-life personality that doubles as a sensitive self-portrait. It’s a winner.
