If someone were to ask me, “Should I read Marvin Olasky’s Lament for a Father?,” the answer would be simple: Yes. But if someone were to ask me, “What is Lament for a Father?,” I’m not sure I could as easily answer the question. It is not quite a biography and not quite an autobiography. It is not quite a memoir and not quite a topical book on family or parenting. Perhaps, then, it’s best described as a kind of tribute, a statement of respect and perhaps even gratitude, from a son to his father.
Here’s how Olasky begins the book:
I’ve watched many times Field of Dreams, the 1989 movie starring Kevin Costner. Flawed though the film is, it always chokes me up. Although called “a baseball flick,” the underlying motif is father-son relationships. At the end, Costner’s character asks his dad, “You wanna have a catch?”
My lifetime catches with my father: zero.
This aptly introduces the difficult relationship between the Olasky father and son. One day they actually do go outside to play catch, but the fun lasts for just one throw before the father walks back into the house to never
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