There are plenty of examples of bad or absent fathers in literature. For the upcoming Father's Day holiday, let's spotlight some good fictional dads.
1. Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee's Atticus Finch may be the most well-respected father in all of literature. Atticus is the brave and compassionate moral compass of Lee's gripping novel of the Deep South during the Jim Crow era. As the town lawyer, Atticus famously sticks up for the underdog, offering fair legal representation to a black man who stands accused of raping a white woman. Even though by doing so, Atticus puts himself at great personal risk.
On the home front, Atticus is as fair and even-handed with his children as he is with his clients. He lets his daughter Scout wear whatever clothes she likes, even though many of the townswomen disapprove of Scout's tomboy clothes.
Image courtesy Flickr/dno1967b
2. Stephen King, Pet Sematary
An underrated book in the Stephen King ouvre, I recently learned that the older you are, the better Pet Sematary works. I read it as a teenager and thought "How boring, there's no action!" Reading it as an adult some 25 years later, I was knocked flat by this tragic story of grief, loss, guilt, and how people cope with (or fail to cope with) being confronted by every parent's worst nightmare. (Admittedly, the novel devolves into paranormal silliness in the final few chapters.)
After the pivotal event, the main character Louis is serving time in a mental prison of his own devising. He sinks into miserable solitude while replaying the death of his son, and tormenting himself with his crystal-clear memories of the moments that preceded it, along with all the ways in which it could have been prevented. When he finally turns to desperate measures to bring back his son, who can blame him? For better or worse, Louis Creed is a man who would literally go to the ends of the Earth to save his child.
3. Bradley Udall, The Lonely Polygamist
This lovely, quiet novel treats the life of a polygamist family with humor, wit, and sympathy, and lacks any of the lurid reality show garishness you might expect from the topic. Udall's masterpiece mainly follows Golden Richards, the patriarch of the family, as he bumbles his way through managing four separate nuclear families in three different houses, while grappling with a midlife crisis of epic proportions.
Although you could hardly blame a man for ducking out on a family consisting of five wives and 27 children, it's Golden's undying love and commitment to his children that keeps him centered. Every time he totters on the edge of total burnout, and sometimes has to silently recite his children's names in his head to keep them straight, his affection for his numerous children is both specific and voluminous. He loves each of his children as individuals, and he loves them with a ferocity that seems to bewilder him.
4. Richard Russo, Empire Falls
This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel centers on the small-town, blue collar life of a diner owner in Maine and his strange, awkward daughter. Miles Roby and his ex-wife circle each other warily throughout the novel, while sharing custody of their daughter known as "Tick."
Tick is having a tough time in school and with life. She a smart, sympathetic outcast who struggles with her mother's remarriage, and takes a liking to the strangest, most difficult boy in school. Some of the novel's best scenes take place between Tick and her caring (yet somewhat baffled) father. Miles does his best to provide a safe harbor for Tick, without smothering her. It's a fine line to walk, and he doesn't always come down on the right side, but what parent does?
Image courtesy Flickr/dok1
5. Daniel Woodrell, Winter's Bone
Described as "Appalachian noir," Winter's Bone follows a teenage girl in the rural Ozarks who struggles to support her younger siblings and her mentally absent mother, while trying to track down her missing father.
Initially when compiling this list, I didn't want to include any stories that involved absent or dead fathers, because to be a good father, you have to be there. And as a convicted meth user and former convict, Jessup Dolly certainly may not look like the primary contender for Father of the Year. However, it is Jessup Dolly's love for his family, and his daughter's rock-solid conviction in his better nature, which drives the novel forward.
Main image courtesy Flickr/davidsilver
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