Jason Good (This Is Ridiculous This Is Amazing) has made a career out of finding the funny in life. As a humorist, he focuses on the absurdity of parenthood and family. But when Jason learns that his father, Michael--a 68-year-old, hip and charismatic retired college professor whose life had been " 'one big bucket list.' He's lived it exactly the way he wanted to."--is diagnosed with leukemia and given nine months to live, his comic perceptions are upset. Jason--a 40-year-old only child who lives in New Jersey with his wife and two young sons--drags the whole family to San Francisco to be with his father and mother as they prepare for Michael's treatment.
Jason feels sad, panicked and powerless. In traveling to and from California, he recounts his loving yet sometimes contentious relationship with his often preoccupied, acerbic father, whose work forced the family to move many times. Jason admits he was a brazen, difficult child who constantly sought to gain his father's love and attention. Michael's illness, however, gives Jason focus and a defined purpose that finally brings him out of his father's shadow.
Jason's well-balanced memoir offers levity--especially as father and son set out to score medicinal marijuana--and poignancy amid the search for a bone marrow donor. Serious illness may have been the force to bring this father and son closer, but comedy ultimately infuses their shared sense of understanding, respect and camaraderie. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines