In the Early Times: A Life Reframed by Tad Friend

In honor of this weekend's upcoming Father's Day, I would like to recommend Tad Friend's memoir, "In Early Times: A Life Reframed," a story about Friend's quest to get to know his dad before his passing. Friend, a New York Time's staff writer came to my attention because he is married to food maven Amanda Hesser of Food52. Her book "Cooking for Mr. Latte," is about how she courted her husband through food. It is probably one of my favorite romantic food memoirs. This time we get to see Friend and Hesser as a married couple, grappling with raising their boy-girl twins, as his father begins to decline. A true memoir about the sandwich generation, we see Friend struggling to face his father's mortality, as well as his own ascent into middle age. His father, who he called Day, was a historian and former president of Swarthmore College. Before his dad dies, Friend tries to mine his father's life for clues and unanswered questions, and is aided by the discovery of his dad's journal. The book reveals a softer side of his dad he rarely saw. What I loved most about this book is that as Friend finds out more about his father, he discovers more about himself as a man, father, son and husband. When we discover flaws about our parents, they are sometimes mirrors to the flaws within ourselves. And that revelation begs the question: Are these flaws meant to be fixed, or carried on for future generations? Friend's memoir is a messy and beautiful book for Father's day, or any Sunday when it's time to curl up and dive into a someone's life. To buy this book on Amazon click here.