The Progress of a Story: The Inner World of the North American Male

I’m trying to write about somebody like my dad. It feels superficial and dull. I realize what I don’t have a good sense of is the man’s life from the inside. Many of the responsible men of my father’s generation got jobs, had families, were good providers. Their lives are easily seen from the outside. They were all about those visible signs of success. But I want to be more aware of their lived experience. I’ve asked members of my on-line writing site to recommend some authors. Here’s the short list: Raymond Carver, Phillip Roth, John Updike, Andre Dubus, Richard Yates, Tom Perrotta, Ron Carlson, Richard Baush, Evan S. Connell, John Cheever, Steve Almond, Norman Mailer, Tom McGuane, John Irving, and Jim Tomlinson. I think it’s a good list. Some new, some old. Some classic, some rare. I think I’ll do a binge reading this summer before I take this story any further.

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