An award-winning poetâs âbeautifully writtenâ (The Seattle Times) portrait of an American family and his own coming of age in the 1960s and 1970s in the wake of his fatherâs suicide. This memoir âbelongs on the special shelves we keep for the books we cannot quite forgetâ (George Hodgman).
The 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 didnât 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, Forhanâs father killed himself in the carport.
Forty years later, Forhan âexcavates both his lost father and a lost era in American historyâ (Bookpage). At the heart of this âfiercely honestâ (Nick Flynn) investigation is Forhanâs 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 âachingly beautifulâ (Buffalo News) portrait of a family âin the tradition of Geoffrey Wolffâ (Booklist).
âPoignantâŠaffectingâŠForhan describes his familyâs healing and acceptance with warmth, humor, and an admirable lack of bitternessâ (Kirkus Reviews). 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, My Father Before Me is âan exquisite example of the power of honestyâ (Jeannette Walls), âa wonderfully engrossing bookâŠessential for all parents and children, that is, all peopleâ (Library Journal, starred review).