Meeting Dad

In his shining memoir Meeting Dad, Brian Russell brilliantly evokes the occasion of two young brothers leaving the cold plateau of Buffalo to journey to the Caribbean flamboyance of San Juan, Puerto Rico. They make this expedition to visit the father who abandoned them as very young children. The boys bring with them both anger and longing, and, for a short while, they slip into the father s new family, meeting his second wife as well as new half brothers and sisters, aching to belong to their expansive, colorful life, yet never truly part of it. With flash, sass, poignancy and the incomprehension that those who are abandoned always retain, Brian Russell tells this story. It is a moving tale, a wicked saga in all ways, since it forces the boys to glimpse what could have been, but was withheld. Meeting Dad recreates a shining hour, a tarnished hour. - Molly Peacock, Author of Paradise, Piece by Piece