Alternadad: The True Story of One Family's Struggle to Raise a Cool Kid in America | 
|  | | | Title: | Alternadad: The True Story of One Family's Struggle to Raise a Cool Kid in America | | Author: | Neal Pollack | | Publisher: | Anchor | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 12 February, 2008 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 1400095581 / 9781400095582 | | List Price: | $14.95 | | You Save: | $4.78 | | Amazon Price: | $10.17 | |
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Product Description
With the publication of Alternadad, Neal Pollack became the spokesperson for a new generation of parents. Pollack, a self-styled party guy known mostly for outrageous literary antics, recounts how he and his wife became responsible parents without sacrificing their passion for pop culture. From an ill-fated family trip to the Austin City Limits Festival, to yanking his son out of an absurd corporate gymnastics class, to dealing with the child’s ongoing biting problem, Pollack captures the wonders, terrors, and idiocies of parenting today. Alternadad is both an engaging and amusing memoir of fatherhood, and a fascinating portrait of a new version of the American family.
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Customer Reviews:
• Hypocritical On All Levels 09 May, 2007
Neal seems to miss the entire point of being "COOL", Cool people do not brag about their "coolness", you either are or your not. This Book is just his vain attempt of not to realize he is amazingly boring and uncool.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3CZGS08N0T1S5
• So What? 21 August, 2007
I find it amusing when reviewers argue that Neal's funny and engaging book isn't such a big deal because a lot of people have kids and like alternative music. That's right, but 99.9 percent of them can't write about it in any sort of entertaining way. I loved this book and laughed throughout. It takes a special skill as a writer to tell other people about your everyday routine and make it interesting for nearly 300 pages. The only time I got angry was when Neal went off on Thomas the Train.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1606T6ILKBSXJ
• A Fun Read 26 April, 2007
Alternadad is a funny, at times touching, memoir of marriage and parenting. Though Pollack is no Sedaris in the humor department (at no point in reading Alternadad did my sides split), credit where it's due: he does have an eye for quirky details, connections, and language. Above all, Pollack emerges from the pages of this memoir as an eminently likeable person, and -- together with his wife -- a seemingly very decent parent: the kind of guy I'd like to hang out with. Having just finished this slightly overlong memoir, I am left only to wonder what's so "Alterna" about this particular dad. Pollack seems pretty much like the next guy, trying to earn a living, provide for his family, instill proper values in his child, etc. (If that's alternative, I'd be curious to know what Pollack considers middle of the road.) In the end, I enjoyed setting a spell with the Pollack family.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AS6EPVW1IRRP5
• Liking Alternative Music Does Not Make An "alternative" Dad 20 May, 2007
Unlike apparently many reviewers here, I am not familiar with Neil Pollack's previous books and other published articles in magazines and webzines. But when I saw this book at my local library, I simply couldn't resist picking this up.
In "Alternadad" (290 pages), author Neil Pollack basically brings a memoir of his life so far, and the book can be divided in two parts, the early part, living in Chicago and eventually meeting his wife, and then the next part, involving moving to/living in Philadelphia and Austin and, of course, becoming a dad at age 33. I have to wonder what the book's title "Alternadad" is really all about. The author likes alternative music, but so what? Many people do too (reason I was tempted by the book's title in the first place). Yet, there is really nothing much "alternative" about how they are raising their son: the baby watches Sesame Street and eats cereal like millions of kids; the author frequents Target and other places that millions of Americans go to, and dotes on his young son, pretty much luke most parents actually. Or is it perhaps due to taking his young son to the Austin City Limits music festival? "I looked at the roster. Franz Ferdinand! the Killers! The Soundtrack of Our Lives! Modest Mouse! I imagined myself saying to my son, 'Elijah, we took you to see Moudest Mouse before you were even two'. Not Mickey Mouse, Modest Mouse! I was going to be the coolest dad ever!" Except that when the festival rolled around, he realizes that it's way too hot to enjoy it and abandons the idea after the first day. Or wondering what age it will be appropriate to watching his favorite movie, "Airplace", with his son. Etc.
In all, the book certainly couldn't live up to the intruiging title of the book. In fact, I'd venture to say that this is pretty much how millions and millions of moms and dads are raising their sons and daughters. If this is "alternative" in the author's view, I cannot even begin to wonder what "middle of the road" would be like.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A14GK0E64J0WAS
• Alternadad Review 17 July, 2007
I bought this book for my husband on his first Father's Day. He loves it and he often reads segments of it to me that he finds particularily funny.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AFNIMSY9TER5V
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