This is a surprisingly moving memoir of a highly eccentric father and his son’s attempt to come to terms with his father’s legacy while going through his papers after his death. I’d read a review on Austin Kleon’s blog that talked about the father’s crazy filing system that enabled him to churn out smutty books by cuttng and pasting the elements from his card catalogue. But what emerges from Offutt’s pages is a picture of a brilliant but severely flawed man who allowed his hack writing to become an obssession that took over his own and his family’s life.
No. 15 of 100 books I intend to read and review in 2021.
Patrick Sherriff is an Englishman who survived 13 years working for newspapers in the US, UK and Japan. Between teaching English lessons at his conversation school in Abiko, Japan, with his wife, he writes and illustrates textbooks for non-native speakers of English, releases Hana Walker mystery novels, short stories, essays and a monthly newsletter highlighting good fiction published in English about Japan. Saku’s Random Book Club is his latest project to spend more time with books.
Patrick Sherriff 