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Rare Calvin Trillin / MESSAGES FROM MY FATHER Signed Review Copy First [Hardcover] Calvin Trillin
This rare and vintage book is a perfect addition to any bibliophile's collection
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1996
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About the author
Calvin Trillin
86 books278 followersCalvin (Bud) Marshall Trillin is an American journalist, humorist, and novelist. He is best known for his humorous writings about food and eating, but he has also written much serious journalism, comic verse, and several books of fiction.
Trillin attended public schools in Kansas City and went on to Yale University, where he served as chairman of the Yale Daily News and became a member of Scroll and Key before graduating in 1957; he later served as a trustee of the university. After a stint in the U.S. Army, he worked as a reporter for Time magazine before joining the staff of The New Yorker in 1963. His reporting for The New Yorker on the racial integration of the University of Georgia was published in his first book, An Education in Georgia. He wrote the magazine's "U.S. Journal" series from 1967 to 1982, covering local events both serious and quirky throughout the United States.
Trillin attended public schools in Kansas City and went on to Yale University, where he served as chairman of the Yale Daily News and became a member of Scroll and Key before graduating in 1957; he later served as a trustee of the university. After a stint in the U.S. Army, he worked as a reporter for Time magazine before joining the staff of The New Yorker in 1963. His reporting for The New Yorker on the racial integration of the University of Georgia was published in his first book, An Education in Georgia. He wrote the magazine's "U.S. Journal" series from 1967 to 1982, covering local events both serious and quirky throughout the United States.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
April 1, 2021
Calvin Trillin's father Abe was a decent, hardworking, opinionated family man. He came to America from the Ukraine when he was 2 years old, landed in St. Joseph, Missouri with his family, and his greatest ambition was to be an American and give his children the chance to live the American Dream, as it used to be known. He became a mid-westerner from head to toe. His son grew up to be a celebrated journalist and humorist who wrote a funny, loving memoir of his father and the values he imparted. You might just say that he was wildly successful at fulfilling his ambition.
As I was writing that first line, I was thinking what a shame that decent, hardworking men are so scarce these days, but that's not true. Most of the men I know in my personal life, and know of through friends are decent and hardworking, they're just not the ones that we see on the news and read about in the papers. And was Abe Trilinski from Ukraine any different from the refugees coming over the border these days? Don't they all just want a chance to become decent, hardworking people so their kids can live the American Dream? Maybe one day we can read a memoir by someone whose father was able to make those dreams come true, just like Abe Trelinski did.
Until then, Calvin Trillin speaks for all of us who remember their fathers fondly, and find ourselves trying to pass on whatever legacy of good remains.
And yes, its funny.
As I was writing that first line, I was thinking what a shame that decent, hardworking men are so scarce these days, but that's not true. Most of the men I know in my personal life, and know of through friends are decent and hardworking, they're just not the ones that we see on the news and read about in the papers. And was Abe Trilinski from Ukraine any different from the refugees coming over the border these days? Don't they all just want a chance to become decent, hardworking people so their kids can live the American Dream? Maybe one day we can read a memoir by someone whose father was able to make those dreams come true, just like Abe Trelinski did.
Until then, Calvin Trillin speaks for all of us who remember their fathers fondly, and find ourselves trying to pass on whatever legacy of good remains.
And yes, its funny.
March 12, 2021
The world according to Calvin Trillin:
I never did very well in math - I could never seem to persuade the teacher that I hadn't meant my answers literally.
Did you know that a hummingbird weighs as much as a quarter? Do you think a hummingbird also weighs the same as two dimes and a nickel? But then she asked a question of her own: How do they weigh a hummingbird?
When someone reaches middle age, people he knows begin to get put in charge of things, and knowing what he knows about the people who are being put in charge of things scares the hell out of him.
******
Calvin Marshall “Bud” Trillin was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1935. He is a journalist, humorist, food writer, memoirist, novelist, and poet.
Messages From My Father is both a biography of the author’s father as well as a memoir that emphasizes their relationship.
Abe Trillin was born into a Jewish family in Ukraine, but at age two his family migrated to the United States – the hard way. Instead of sailing from Europe to the U.S. east coast, as most Jewish migrants did, their ship sailed to Galveston, Texas and from there the family, then known as Trilinsky, made their way to St. Joseph, Missouri, most famous for the Pony Express and Jesse James, but not as a destination for Jewish immigrants.
Abe Trilinsky eventually changed his name to Trillin. When he became an adult he moved a few miles south and lived the rest of his life in Kansas City, where he made a living first as a grocer, at one point owning five stores, and later as a restaurateur.
With his trademark wry humor Calvin Trillin tells a heartwarming story about the lessons that he learned from his father. As with many other sons, he only learned to fully appreciate those lessons after he became an adult, admitting that he followed most of his father’s messages “with just a little light editing.”
I never did very well in math - I could never seem to persuade the teacher that I hadn't meant my answers literally.
Did you know that a hummingbird weighs as much as a quarter? Do you think a hummingbird also weighs the same as two dimes and a nickel? But then she asked a question of her own: How do they weigh a hummingbird?
When someone reaches middle age, people he knows begin to get put in charge of things, and knowing what he knows about the people who are being put in charge of things scares the hell out of him.
******
Calvin Marshall “Bud” Trillin was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1935. He is a journalist, humorist, food writer, memoirist, novelist, and poet.
Messages From My Father is both a biography of the author’s father as well as a memoir that emphasizes their relationship.
Abe Trillin was born into a Jewish family in Ukraine, but at age two his family migrated to the United States – the hard way. Instead of sailing from Europe to the U.S. east coast, as most Jewish migrants did, their ship sailed to Galveston, Texas and from there the family, then known as Trilinsky, made their way to St. Joseph, Missouri, most famous for the Pony Express and Jesse James, but not as a destination for Jewish immigrants.
Abe Trilinsky eventually changed his name to Trillin. When he became an adult he moved a few miles south and lived the rest of his life in Kansas City, where he made a living first as a grocer, at one point owning five stores, and later as a restaurateur.
With his trademark wry humor Calvin Trillin tells a heartwarming story about the lessons that he learned from his father. As with many other sons, he only learned to fully appreciate those lessons after he became an adult, admitting that he followed most of his father’s messages “with just a little light editing.”
January 21, 2016
"Children go through life seeing their parents in terms of themselves."
I am disappointed. Messages from My Father is a catchy title for a memoir. I expected tears, sorrows, touchy lines and lessons in life that I can ponder. But I found nothing. Instead, it was full of stories I found nonsense. Or maybe it's just me. But a memoir, in my own understanding and based on the previous memoirs I've read, should be full of stories that can make the readers cry tears or can warm the heart. But I felt nothing. And it disappoints me so much.
I am disappointed. Messages from My Father is a catchy title for a memoir. I expected tears, sorrows, touchy lines and lessons in life that I can ponder. But I found nothing. Instead, it was full of stories I found nonsense. Or maybe it's just me. But a memoir, in my own understanding and based on the previous memoirs I've read, should be full of stories that can make the readers cry tears or can warm the heart. But I felt nothing. And it disappoints me so much.
April 25, 2016
Lorene - Children's and Young Adult Librarian
Calvin Trillin, staff writer for The New Yorker, Time, and The Nation, has written a marvelous little tribute to his father called Messages from My Father. At only 117 pages, including vintage family photos, it’s the kind of book you might even be able to share aloud with your family this Father’s Day.
Trillin’s father, born Abe Trillinsky, came to America at the turn of the last century with his Russian Jewish parents, settling in Missouri and into Midwestern American life. Trillin describes his father as hard working, frugal, obstinate, exceedingly honest, friendly, yet quiet, a grocer by trade, who dabbled himself in writing.
Trillin also describes how his father’s tacit instructions for life guided young Trillin even when he thought he was pursuing his own decisions. From attending Yale to becoming a writer, Trillin finds himself following a course mapped out by his father, who worked in the grocery business so that his son would not have to.
It’s a story of how fathers love their children enough to take on a lifetime of unfulfilling work so that their children won’t have to. It’s about how fathers love their children enough to push their children to success while granting them the freedom to make their own decisions. It’s about how much our fathers’ instructions mean to us even when we’re trying not to follow them. It’s also about a particularly endearing father who reminds me a lot of my own father. Perhaps you’ll recognize your own father in this memoir too.
Calvin Trillin, staff writer for The New Yorker, Time, and The Nation, has written a marvelous little tribute to his father called Messages from My Father. At only 117 pages, including vintage family photos, it’s the kind of book you might even be able to share aloud with your family this Father’s Day.
Trillin’s father, born Abe Trillinsky, came to America at the turn of the last century with his Russian Jewish parents, settling in Missouri and into Midwestern American life. Trillin describes his father as hard working, frugal, obstinate, exceedingly honest, friendly, yet quiet, a grocer by trade, who dabbled himself in writing.
Trillin also describes how his father’s tacit instructions for life guided young Trillin even when he thought he was pursuing his own decisions. From attending Yale to becoming a writer, Trillin finds himself following a course mapped out by his father, who worked in the grocery business so that his son would not have to.
It’s a story of how fathers love their children enough to take on a lifetime of unfulfilling work so that their children won’t have to. It’s about how fathers love their children enough to push their children to success while granting them the freedom to make their own decisions. It’s about how much our fathers’ instructions mean to us even when we’re trying not to follow them. It’s also about a particularly endearing father who reminds me a lot of my own father. Perhaps you’ll recognize your own father in this memoir too.
October 11, 2022
Well written memoir about his father.
March 28, 2019
Disclaimer: I've been a Calvin Trillin fan for years. This is a sweet and heart warming memoir about the author's father. It manages to be touching without being syrupy. Poignant without tears.
May 9, 2015
Trillin is this year's recipient of the Art of Fact Award. Began this memoir today...it is laugh out loud funny
One thing I love about this local award is that it brings in some well-known writers I have never heard of, or have heard of but haven't read. Trillin is the former.
I'm glad that of his many (many) books, this is the one I started with. It's a beautiful tribute to his father, and is both touching and humorous.
"I understood that my father, who in some ways seemed so Midwestern, had a strong sense that proper behavior was modest behavior---the sense that Midwesterners reflect when they respond to an expression of gratitude or admiration by saying something like 'No big deal.' Even the words to live by that I have always associated most strongly with him---'You might was well be a mensch'---lack grandiosity. The German word Mensch, which means person or human being, can take on in Yiddish the meaning of a real human being---a person who always does the right things in matters large or small, a person who would not only put himself at serious risk for a friend but also leave a borrowed apartment in better shape than he found it. My father clearly meant for me to be a mensch. It has always interested me, though, that he did not say, 'You must always be a mensch' or 'The honor of the family demands that you be a mensch' but 'You might as well be a mensch,' as if he had given some consideration to the alternatives."
"If my father started reading a book, he finished it, whether he liked it or not. He read all sorts of books. He read good books and he read trash. He finished them all. I tried to persuade him that giving up on a book is not a reflection of weak character but simply a decision to spend your reading time elsewhere; as my mother would have said, it was like talking to the wall. At times, he'd say something that sounded as if it might have been designed to get a rise out of me or Uncle Jerry, the librarian. 'I don't understand what they see in this Faulkner,' he said once, when I was in college---which might have drawn an erudite response from me if I hadn't been having so much trouble getting through Absalom, Absalom! He was strongly in favor of plot."
One thing I love about this local award is that it brings in some well-known writers I have never heard of, or have heard of but haven't read. Trillin is the former.
I'm glad that of his many (many) books, this is the one I started with. It's a beautiful tribute to his father, and is both touching and humorous.
"I understood that my father, who in some ways seemed so Midwestern, had a strong sense that proper behavior was modest behavior---the sense that Midwesterners reflect when they respond to an expression of gratitude or admiration by saying something like 'No big deal.' Even the words to live by that I have always associated most strongly with him---'You might was well be a mensch'---lack grandiosity. The German word Mensch, which means person or human being, can take on in Yiddish the meaning of a real human being---a person who always does the right things in matters large or small, a person who would not only put himself at serious risk for a friend but also leave a borrowed apartment in better shape than he found it. My father clearly meant for me to be a mensch. It has always interested me, though, that he did not say, 'You must always be a mensch' or 'The honor of the family demands that you be a mensch' but 'You might as well be a mensch,' as if he had given some consideration to the alternatives."
"If my father started reading a book, he finished it, whether he liked it or not. He read all sorts of books. He read good books and he read trash. He finished them all. I tried to persuade him that giving up on a book is not a reflection of weak character but simply a decision to spend your reading time elsewhere; as my mother would have said, it was like talking to the wall. At times, he'd say something that sounded as if it might have been designed to get a rise out of me or Uncle Jerry, the librarian. 'I don't understand what they see in this Faulkner,' he said once, when I was in college---which might have drawn an erudite response from me if I hadn't been having so much trouble getting through Absalom, Absalom! He was strongly in favor of plot."
March 18, 2012
I've always enjoyed Calvin Trillin's New Yorker articles, for both his plainspoken engaging style as well as his rather American point of view. Messages From My Father offers up more of the same but with a wonderful, additional layer. Unlike so many contemporary memoirs about inept parents and dysfunctional families written by individuals with an ax to grind, Trillin's book is a loving tribute to the parents who raised him and the environment in which he grew up.
It's clear from the very beginning of the book that Trillin respected, admired and--yes--loved his father for the many wonderful things about him, even as he was also aware of his father's failings, but considered them an essential component of what made his dad so special. There's a lovely sense of warmth, humor and tolerance running through the book that even encompasses Trillin's extended family, further enhancing the portrait.
The book is a short, fast read that's not heavy lifting and isn't meant to be. But it isn't sickeningly sweet either...just a respectful, clear-eyed appreciation of someone the author wishes to honor. I think he's done so winningly.
It's clear from the very beginning of the book that Trillin respected, admired and--yes--loved his father for the many wonderful things about him, even as he was also aware of his father's failings, but considered them an essential component of what made his dad so special. There's a lovely sense of warmth, humor and tolerance running through the book that even encompasses Trillin's extended family, further enhancing the portrait.
The book is a short, fast read that's not heavy lifting and isn't meant to be. But it isn't sickeningly sweet either...just a respectful, clear-eyed appreciation of someone the author wishes to honor. I think he's done so winningly.
July 16, 2015
Calvin Trillin’s book, “Messages From My Father” is a short but loving tribute to his father whom he admired and respected. I enjoyed the many anecdotes about his father and about his parents’ extended family. I frequently found myself laughing out loud.
However, there was one episode that I particularly related to, something from my own childhood – sharing the backseat of the car with my brother on long car trips throughout the U.S. I especially liked the way he “compared it to the border tension between Finland and the Soviet Union” and how, after his father intervened, he “became what amounted to a unilaterally disarmed Finland.”
Ultimately, what I liked most was how he integrated many of his father’s messages into his own life and how he used those life lessons to make himself a better person and a better father. This was best shown in the last paragraph of the book when Trillin writes, “I’ve felt his presence most intensely at those landmarks of continuity … But I can often hear his voice in mine … I hope my daughters can hear it, too.”
However, there was one episode that I particularly related to, something from my own childhood – sharing the backseat of the car with my brother on long car trips throughout the U.S. I especially liked the way he “compared it to the border tension between Finland and the Soviet Union” and how, after his father intervened, he “became what amounted to a unilaterally disarmed Finland.”
Ultimately, what I liked most was how he integrated many of his father’s messages into his own life and how he used those life lessons to make himself a better person and a better father. This was best shown in the last paragraph of the book when Trillin writes, “I’ve felt his presence most intensely at those landmarks of continuity … But I can often hear his voice in mine … I hope my daughters can hear it, too.”
December 8, 2009
This heartwarming and amusing homage to Calvin Trillin's father made me laugh and made me cry. With so many books published about dysfunctional families and the associated parental blame for missed opportunities and failed lives, it was refreshing to read something that truly honored a loved parent's memory.
I loved Abe, his quirky sense of humor and his stubborn philosophy of life from page one. However, the true beauty of this book is the way that Trillin shows his love of his dad not through poking fun of his eccentricities but through talking about how his father's "messages" were incorporated into his own life and how those messages made him a better person and better father. This was a beautiful book.
I loved Abe, his quirky sense of humor and his stubborn philosophy of life from page one. However, the true beauty of this book is the way that Trillin shows his love of his dad not through poking fun of his eccentricities but through talking about how his father's "messages" were incorporated into his own life and how those messages made him a better person and better father. This was a beautiful book.
March 10, 2011
This is a short, sweet memoir of Calvin Trillan's father Abe. An East European Jew, instead of immigrating to Ellis Island, his ship went to Galveston, TX and that made all the difference. Abe was brought up in St. Joseph, MO and raised Calvin and his sister in Kansas City. Seeing Midwestern Judaism in the years around and following WWII, was very different from the usual stories of the Lower East Side. Calvin is proud of his father and gratefully accepts the inherited traits like stubbornism. It's a very interesting story that could have been much longer but I got a good sense of his father and respected him.
February 18, 2008
This is a lovely thin book. If the author had not been an established writer with a loyal following I wonder if it would have been published...
Sweet book, fast read.
Sweet book, fast read.
August 29, 2009
This is a wonderful, warm read. It can lead you to other Trillin books.
Read
December 18, 2009Messages From My Father: A Memoir by Calvin Trillin (1997)
Currently reading
December 21, 2010I am reading this in installments to my almost 90 year old mother, Mildred over the phone. We are thoroughly enjoying it.
January 12, 2011
Savory little book that effectively captures the layered personality of Abe Trillin. Wryly funny.
July 17, 2011
Randomly picked this one off my mom's shelf. It was just fine, but I wasn't changed or moved by his recollections of his father--not a must read for me.
July 26, 2011
A sweet memoir.
September 28, 2011
As the father of a 2 year old boy, I certainly hope that I have as good a relationship with my son that Calvin Trillin had with his father.
September 5, 2012
Wonderful reminiscence of a son for his father, always loving if not always reverent.
Read
November 25, 2012Don't cry. Try pie.
October 22, 2015
Linda led this discussion.
April 12, 2016
A beautiful tribute to an "ordinary" man
May 15, 2017
The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers.
The original meal has never been found.
The original meal has never been found.
July 24, 2017
The author remembers his father and growing up in a Jewish family in the Midwest. I liked this book because his father resembles mine.
September 29, 2017
Calvin Trillin recalls the subtle and not-so-subtle things his father taught him, reflecting on how this guided his adult life.
April 11, 2022
A gentle and fond tribute by Calvin to his dad, Abe, a stubborn, entertaining, humorous, unassuming man who illuminated Calvin’s entire childhood with his light. “When I was a child, I took it for granted, as children do, that my father was powerful in both senses of the word – as well as being a lot smarter than most other people.” Abe emigrated from Ukraine when he was two and ended up in St. Joseph, Missouri. He was a non-practicing Jew, a grocer businessman, an emigrant fiercely proud of America, a man determined that his only son would go to Yale because he read a 1911 book about a boy who went to Yale. “We didn’t live in an immigrant neighborhood…but the Old Country – untalked about, basically unexperienced by anyone in our immediate family – was a constant in our lives.” “I took it for granted we were as American as anyone else…We lived on a pleasant street in a city then known as the Heart of America. My father mowed the lawn…on summer evenings we caught lightning bugs or we played croquet…we brought our meat loaf to the covered-dish suppers at the Broadway Methodist Church…I believe now that my father never took it for granted.”
Trillin and his sister were mid-century children raised in an America it is hard to recreate. Or is it? Trillin writes so beautifully about his Midwestern childhood, so vividly about his dad, and so tenderly about their relationship, that it is one of those books where you savor every word. Sometimes you will laugh out loud. His dad will come to life before your eyes, spouting his clever aphorisms and determined optimism. His dad “swore off things” for no reason and it provides endless fascination – no ties other than yellow ties, no coffee, no unfinished books. “The act of swearing off, in other words, seemed to overwhelm whatever had triggered it. It’s possible, I suppose, that over the years my father could have forgotten why he struck something off the rolls. In his case, though, forgetting what had been behind some absolute prohibition would not have been an argument for ending it.”
Trillin did go to Yale and famously became a writer at The New Yorker. His father saw Yale as “a ride on the magic escalator that would turn the likes of us into the likes of them.” Trillin describes long car rides with his father where no words were exchanged. “What strikes me as odd now is how much my father managed to get across to me without those heart-to-hearts that I’ve read about fathers and sons having…Somehow, the fact that he considered me a special case was understood from the beginning…Somehow, I understood completely how he expected me to behave, in small matters as well as large…”
Trillin and his sister were mid-century children raised in an America it is hard to recreate. Or is it? Trillin writes so beautifully about his Midwestern childhood, so vividly about his dad, and so tenderly about their relationship, that it is one of those books where you savor every word. Sometimes you will laugh out loud. His dad will come to life before your eyes, spouting his clever aphorisms and determined optimism. His dad “swore off things” for no reason and it provides endless fascination – no ties other than yellow ties, no coffee, no unfinished books. “The act of swearing off, in other words, seemed to overwhelm whatever had triggered it. It’s possible, I suppose, that over the years my father could have forgotten why he struck something off the rolls. In his case, though, forgetting what had been behind some absolute prohibition would not have been an argument for ending it.”
Trillin did go to Yale and famously became a writer at The New Yorker. His father saw Yale as “a ride on the magic escalator that would turn the likes of us into the likes of them.” Trillin describes long car rides with his father where no words were exchanged. “What strikes me as odd now is how much my father managed to get across to me without those heart-to-hearts that I’ve read about fathers and sons having…Somehow, the fact that he considered me a special case was understood from the beginning…Somehow, I understood completely how he expected me to behave, in small matters as well as large…”
November 2, 2021
This is a biography of the writer’s father, Abe Trillin, a very opinionated and stubborn man with a strong willpower. If Abe ‘swore off’ something, it was permanent. There may never be an explanation for his decision, but it was a permanent decision.
Calvin Trillin, Abe’s son and the book’s author, is a well-known writer who writes for “Time” and “The Nation,” along with having written a number of stand-alone books. This book is and not just to his father’s stubbornness, but also the wisdom imparted from some of his father’s quotes and actions.
Growing up in Missouri in the 1950s, Calvin absorbed traits of common sense, integrity and responsibility from his father. The traits that have followed him through his life. This book is an affectionate look back at those years and the man who taught the author those traits.
There is humour, sensibility, caring and appreciation in the author’s perspective of his father. Also a visit back to a time where common sense, responsibility and integrity were a part of everyday life. For me this was a very enjoyable read.
Calvin Trillin, Abe’s son and the book’s author, is a well-known writer who writes for “Time” and “The Nation,” along with having written a number of stand-alone books. This book is and not just to his father’s stubbornness, but also the wisdom imparted from some of his father’s quotes and actions.
Growing up in Missouri in the 1950s, Calvin absorbed traits of common sense, integrity and responsibility from his father. The traits that have followed him through his life. This book is an affectionate look back at those years and the man who taught the author those traits.
There is humour, sensibility, caring and appreciation in the author’s perspective of his father. Also a visit back to a time where common sense, responsibility and integrity were a part of everyday life. For me this was a very enjoyable read.
March 16, 2023
Parents pass down, wittingly or unwittingly, messages which their children internalize. Childhoods have themes.
The theme of Trillin’s childhood was, “We have worked hard so that you can have the opportunity to be a real American”.
Trillin’s father Abe, a Ukrainian Jew, immigrated to the American Midwest (Kansas City) in the early 1900’s. His is the archetypal story of every immigrant struggle. He worked hard as a grocer and later as a restauranteur so Trillin wouldn’t have to. He gave up his dream of living in California.
The messages of some parents are direct and heavy handed, while those of Trillin’s father were delivered softly and subtly. “You might as well become a Mensch” (a person who always does the right thing). “He was never the sort of parent who demanded to know why the B in some course wasn’t an A”.
While Abe’s approach was unimposing, his plans for his son were very specific: A Yale education and a career in the newspaper business. Remarkably, Calvin graduated from Yale and became a staff writer with the New Yorker.
I liked Abe’s character and the idea that you don’t need to strongarm your children to give them values and influence their future paths.
While Trillin’s memoir is well written and funny, I didn’t find the profundity or poignancy I expected.
The theme of Trillin’s childhood was, “We have worked hard so that you can have the opportunity to be a real American”.
Trillin’s father Abe, a Ukrainian Jew, immigrated to the American Midwest (Kansas City) in the early 1900’s. His is the archetypal story of every immigrant struggle. He worked hard as a grocer and later as a restauranteur so Trillin wouldn’t have to. He gave up his dream of living in California.
The messages of some parents are direct and heavy handed, while those of Trillin’s father were delivered softly and subtly. “You might as well become a Mensch” (a person who always does the right thing). “He was never the sort of parent who demanded to know why the B in some course wasn’t an A”.
While Abe’s approach was unimposing, his plans for his son were very specific: A Yale education and a career in the newspaper business. Remarkably, Calvin graduated from Yale and became a staff writer with the New Yorker.
I liked Abe’s character and the idea that you don’t need to strongarm your children to give them values and influence their future paths.
While Trillin’s memoir is well written and funny, I didn’t find the profundity or poignancy I expected.
November 18, 2021
I read an article in the New Yorker about Calvin Trillin, and was reminded what a terrific author he is. He's been a contributor to the New Yorker for decades, and was profiled by Rebecca Traister (another great writer) in 2019. I've read several of his books, and went on a quest to buy any that I didn't already have. This book is a memoir about Calvin Trillin's father, Abe. Abe was born in Russia and emigrated as a baby to the U.S. with his parents. He grew up to be a grocer in Missouri, where he raised his family. Abe was an often quiet, but always caring father. Trillin's reminiscences of his years growing up in Kansas City, MO and how he strove toward the achievements his father desired for him, are amusing and heart-warming, made all the better with Trillin's skills as a storyteller and writer.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews