Love, Dad: Confessions of an anxious father (Laurie Steed, Fremantle)

In Love, Dad, Laurie Steed reflects on family, mental health, the arts, careers, relationships and, most of all, being a father. It’s an honest and engaging book about being a parent to your children and also a child to your parents. Looking back on the shared and diverse experiences in his own family life, Steed has a light touch as he deftly explores themes of anxiety, trauma, toxic masculinity and the ever-winding pathways to healing. In his reflections on more recent history, we are given an almost fly-on-the-wall look at the stressful, mundane and often hilarious challenges of being a parent. At times there’s a simple joy to be had, occasionally hair-pulling frustration, and mostly there’s just getting on with it. There’s also lots of terrible pop songs. As an artist exploring new aspects of the craft of writing, Steed also takes us on his personal journey with trying to do the responsible thing and have a ‘real’ job but staying faithful to his calling and turning it into something productive. Different elements of Love, Dad will ring true to different readers, and it has a lot to offer most of us, but especially the anxious dads we know and love.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Hannah Cartmel is an editor, former bookseller and co-founder of The Rag & Bone Man Press Inc. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Category: Reviews