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Books like My Father, the Pornographer: A Memoir
A son sifts through a literal mountain of his father's secrets to map the contours of a deeply complicated love. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with My Father, the Pornographer: A Memoir.
- melancholic
- claustrophobic
- contemplative
- haunted
- 01
Priestdaddy
Patricia Lockwood
A wildly poetic, laugh-out-loud descent into the absurdities of a deeply eccentric Catholic upbringing.
- 02
Manhood for amateurs
Michael Chabon
A warm, wry, and deeply articulate exploration of the fumbling, beautiful mess of modern fatherhood and middle age.
- 03
The chronology of water
Lidia Yuknavitch
A raw, untraditional plunge into grief, fluid sexuality, and the fierce current of survival.
- 04
Hold still
Sally Mann
A lyrical, startlingly revealing descent into a complicated Southern family's archives, blending haunting photographs with page-turning drama.
- 05
A list of things that didn't kill me
Jason Schmidt
A darkly witty and brutally honest memoir about surviving a chaotic, secretive childhood and searching for a moral compass in the wreckage.
- 06
The Kiss
Kathryn Harrison
A hypnotic, beautifully written descent into a claustrophobic nightmare of family secrets and shattered boundaries.
- 07
Fun Home
Alison Bechdel · 2006
A darkly funny, deeply literary graphic memoir that dissects the complicated legacy of a closeted parent and a daughter's own queer awakening.
- 08
A Girl Named Zippy
Haven Kimmel
A hilarious, sun-dappled stroll through a quirky Midwestern childhood where the adults are just as delightfully feral as the kids.
- 09
All over but the shoutin'
Rick Bragg
A lyrical, fiercely loving tribute to a mother's sacrifice and the inescapable gravity of a Southern childhood.
- 10
Running with Scissors
Augusten Burroughs
A hilariously horrifying plunge into a childhood where the adults are the lunatics and survival requires a razor-sharp sense of irony.
- 11
Down the rabbit hole
Juan Pablo Villalobos
A darkly comic and delirious fever dream of corrupted innocence inside a cartel hideout.
- 12
Small Fry
Lisa Brennan-Jobs
A beautifully rendered, aching exploration of what it means to grow up in the shadow of a myth.
