Book Review: Things My Son Needs to Know About the World by Fredrik Backman

Things My Son Needs to Know About the World
by Fredrik Backman (Biography Backman)

 

Backman is perhaps best known for his prose fiction, starting with A Man Called Ove, and including such recent bestsellers as Beartown and its sequel Us Against You.

 

In Things My Son Needs to Know About the World, Backman offers up a series of interconnected personal essays (hence it is cataloged as a biography in the libraries’ collection), all connected to the theme of sharing his adult wisdom with his young son. Each chapter is one long essay, paired with a series of humorous side notes. The titles of the chapters may be somewhat accurate, but Backman goes off (seemingly) on tangents with each one — “What you need to know about motion-sensitive bathroom lights”, “What you need to know about stuff”, “What you need to know about why that Felicia girl’s mother hates me”, and “What you need to know about when I hold your hand a little too tight”, for examples. Backman’s writing in this book is both hilarious, yet poignant. Wise, yet self-deprecating. Absurdist, yet at times almost gut-wrenching in its honesty.

 

I really didn’t know what to expect when I picked up this short volume (193 pages), but in the end, I found this to be very touching, and I laughed at it more than any other book I’ve read in the past few years.

 

Highly recommended, especially for anyone interested in exploring parenthood issues from a dad’s point-of-view.

 

[If you enjoy this, you may also enjoy anything else written by Fredrik Backman, but be aware that most of his other writings are far more serious.]

 

[ official Things My Son Needs to Know About the World page on the official Fredrik Backman web site ]

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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