The Bill from My Father: A Memoir
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.66 (994 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0743249623 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 256 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-03-24 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
With a sharp scalpel of detail, Cooper dissects his father's stinging dismissals and unceremonious reconciliations with his sole surviving progeny, laboring to slice away a mystique that "ballooned into myth" in Edward's sustained absences. Edward was a blustery Los Angeles divorce lawyer with a flair for drama in and out of court. "By delving into the riddle of him, I hoped to know his mystery by finer degrees." Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. Circling from recent to distant past, Cooper recalls his utter bewilderment at his father's ill-advised imbroglios, which included an affair with his father's evangelical nurse and a lawsuit against the phone company. All rights reserved. Stirri
Now retired and living in a run-down trailer, Edward Cooper had once made a name for himself as a divorce attorney whose cases included "The Case of the Captive Bride" and "The Case of the Baking Newlywed," as they were dubbed by the "Herald Examiner." An expert at "the dissolution of human relationships," the elder Cooper is slowly succumbing to dementia. Bernard Cooper's new memoir is searing, soulful, and filled with uncommon psychological nuance and laugh-out-loud humor. By the time the author receives his inheritance (which includes a message his father taped to the underside of a safedeposit box), and sees the surprising epitaph inscribed on his father's headstone, "The Bill from My Father" has become a penetrating meditation on both monetary and emotional indebtedness, and on the mysterious nature of memory and love.. Like Tobias Wolff's "This Boy's Life," Cooper's account of growing up and coming to terms with a bewildering father is a triumph of contemporary autobiography.Edward Cooper is a hard man to know.Dour and exuberant by turns, his moods dictate the always uncertain climate of the Cooper household. As the author attempts, with his father's help, to forge a coherent picture of the Cooper family history, he discovers some peculiar documents involving lawsuits against other family members, and recalls a bill his father once sent him for the total cost of his upbringing, an itemized invoice addin
"Bernard Cooper is a magnificent writer" according to Jon Miller. There are 2 writers whose next books I wait for, buy and gobble up right away, then re-read slower a few more times: One is David Foster Wallace and the other is Bernard Cooper._Bill from My Father_ flows with what I've come to think of as the standard "Cooperian" fluid, lucid prose. Mr. Cooper has an amazing ability to explore complicated interpersonal ties without ever losing me as a reader to sentimentality or gratuitously personal complications. (In this he reminds. Bringing Up Father Lewis DeSimone In a sincere, humorous, yet deeply compassionate memoir, Cooper limns the complex relationship that all fathers and sons know too well. Without glossing over the inevitable conflicts, he offers a well-rounded portrait of his admittedly irascible and puzzling father, suggesting but never sentimentalizing the pain that lies at the core of their relationship. Cooper's eye for the telling detail has never been sharper, his courage as a memoirist never clearer. Essential re. Ang said Adored it!. Bernard Cooper truly has a way with words. "The Bill from My Father" is a feast for any logophile; both rich in detail and beautifully selected words. Cooper's father likely reminds any reader of someone in their own family, if not their very own father or parent(s). I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found myself laughing at his father's cantankerous ways and biting comebacks and, then, crying as Cooper tries to come to terms with parenting his parent and his father's