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Book of the Week

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Serialised book readings, featuring works from various genres

Serialised book readings, featuring works of non-fiction, biography, autobiography, travel, diaries, essays, humour and history

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Book of the Week: Michael Chabon - Manhood for Amateurs

Book of the Week: Michael Chabon - Manhood for Amateurs: Episode 2

Factual: Life Stories

Manhood for Amateurs

Episode 2

Michael Chabon - Manhood for Amateurs

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, Michael Chabon - Manhood for Amateurs, Episode 2

Michael Chabon reflects on his complex relationship with his former father-in-law.

Michael Chabon's complex relationship with his former father-in-law. Memoir of a husband, father and son. Read by Jason Butler Harner.

Jason Butler Harner continues to read from Pulitzer prize-winning author Michael Chabon's moving, warm and witty memoir about life as a husband, father and son. 

In exploring what it means to be a man today, Chabon reflects on the personal and family history that haunts him even as it's being written every day. At the centre of a large and complex family, and with four young children, Chabon evokes memories of his childhood, of his parents' marriage and divorce and of moments of painful adolescent comedy.

Despite having very little in common, Michael Chabon formed a very close relationship with the father of his first wife. Today he reflects on the different world his father-in-law opened up for him, the joy he felt in being part of a much more stable family than his own, and the complex emotions both men felt when his marriage broke down. 

Michael Chabon is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of seven novels including The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and The Yiddish Policeman's Union. He has been described by the Guardian as 'a spectacular writer' and by the New York Times as 'one of his generation's most eloquent voices'. 

Jason Butler Harner has starred in films such as The Changeling with Angelina Jolie, as well as numerous TV series including Law and Order  and John Adams. An accomplished stage actor, he has just appeared on the London stage in Serenading Louie at the Donmar Warehouse. 

Producer: Jane Greenwood. This is a Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.

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Jason Butler Harner reads from Michael Chabon's memoir

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