The Bill From My Father
Recommended Reading by Jered Standing
The Bill From My Father
By Bernard Cooper
(Simon & Schuster)
I started reading The Bill from My Father a few weeks ago and just finished it this morning over a satisfying breakfast of beans and bacon. I say “this morning†but, as I never get out of bed before noon, I suppose it technically was this afternoon. But that is neither here nor there, as the saying goes.
Now, don’t assume that because it took me three weeks to finish this book that I didn’t enjoy it. I enjoyed it immensely—to a shocking degree, actually. You see, I haven’t read a contemporary author or a new book that I’ve truly liked in a long while. Hell, maybe never. Huh? Nope, can’t think of one.
Until now.
Part memoir, part biography—a memiography—The Bill from My Father is the story of Bernard Cooper, Bernard Cooper’s father, and the relationship between the two. We also meet Bernard’s brothers, his mother, his boyfriend Brian, and his lesbian feminist friend, Monica.
Of all the subjects one could write about, the Father-Son relationship has got to be one of the most difficult—a task right alongside walking on water or traveling through time.
(By the way. While we’re on the subject of time travel: Is anyone out there working on HoverBoard Technology? I mean, seriously, it’s 2006! We put a man on the Moon 50 years ago. All I want is to float—only a few inches, mind you—off the ground atop a piece of hot-pink plastic. I don’t think it’s too much to ask.)
But back to the business at hand.
There are too many good things I could say about this book. And while it is true that I went into the thing with relatively low expectations, I was repeatedly impressed, page after page, by not only the story, but by the writing itself. Each paragraph, each sentence, is perfectly crafted—every word carefully handpicked and arranged, forming a nearly flawless bouquet. All the while conveying an almost contradictory sense of effortlessness on the author’s part. Extremely easy to read. Even easier to recommend.
Don’t be surprised to find yourself smiling while reading, or even laughing out loud at various points in the story. By the end you’ll be fighting back tears, before one more good laugh brings the whole thing to an end.