cover image Fathers and Sons

Fathers and Sons

. Serpent's Tail, $15.99 (0pp) ISBN 978-1-85242-203-5

This collection of eight memoirs, most by British writers, adds to the literature of fatherhood with thoughtful, sensitive writing. David Simon confronts the broken dreams of his father, an immigrant from the West Indies, by making a pilgrimage to meet ``Daddy's people'' and learning that ``a man can only inherit love, everyt'ing else jus' crumble.'' John Fowles grieves at his father's remoteness but reflects that his confining childhood fostered his own creativity. American David Epstein tenderly describes his late father in brief, burnished episodes, concluding, ``The truth is that the world is a stranger place without him, and I am wandering in it.'' While Chris Rawlence's memoir is disorganized and John McVicar's essay, like his filial relationship, is emotionally flat, British playwright and editor Hoyland's touching reminiscence includes a letter from his father, who was killed in WW II when Hoyland was three, to be opened when he became an adult. The letter urged him to dedicate himself ``to the greatest cause in the world: the emancipation of mankind.'' Several writers underscore the prevalence of class consciousness in Britain, astutely noting how their fathers grappled with issues of class. (May)