Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Wry, serious, and searching." * New York Review of Books *
“Blends personal memoir with cultural criticism to explore the ghosts that haunt not only her rental house, but also her head, the city streets, American classrooms, and presidential debates. . . . Crispin may be primarily concerned with the Midwest, but its history, she argues, belongs just as much to the coasts, even if people from those regions try to distance themselves from it. . . .
My Three Dads drills down on and picks apart these opinions, offering a concentrated look at a divided white America.” * Nation *
"The reward of reading Crispin’s book is commiseration, sharing her shame at wanting to want something different, but sometimes just wanting." * Bookforum *
"Crispin’s erudite analysis and biting wit make this multifaceted history unmissable. Searing and intelligent, this delivers on all counts." * Publishers Weekly, starred review *
"By challenging a host of societal assumptions about family, identity, gender, religion, and politics, the author upends an array of notions about American exceptionalism. A fascinating and engaging cultural study."
* Kirkus, starred review *
"Crispin provides a much-needed counternarrative for the fictions of the Midwest that perpetuate and continue to engender an American cultural mythology that conceals harsh realities of colonialism, oppression, and patriarchalism, which together have led to undiscussed problems related to economic disadvantages, abuse, and stigma. . . .A powerful, provocative narrative, designed to remind readers that it is often silence that empowers oppression, allowing it the power to endure in unchallenged ways." * Library Journal *
“
My Three Dads is challenging in its assessment of American life—a personal story that’s conveyed with piercing humor, sharp details, and whirlwinds of intelligent, expansive prose.” * Foreword *
