Truckin' with Sam Review

Lee and Sam Gutkind's father and son memoir, Truckin' with Sam: A Father and Son, The Mick and The Dyl, Rockin' and Rollin', On the Road, was recently reviewed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Here's an excerpt of Peter Oresick's review:

Mr. Gutkind typically works like an anthropologist garnering material for his books. He spends years gaining entrance to and carefully observing a closed community -- organ transplantation, robotics engineers, baseball umpires -- then delivers an insightful, character-driven chronicle that unveils that subculture with dramatic flair and intensity.

In Truckin' With Sam, however, the closed-community motif is personal: His own father-son relationships.

In his 2003 memoir, Forever Fat, Mr. Gutkind first delved into his stormy relationship with his dad. This new book amplifies many of those 1950s traumas, but it aims to be a corrective by focusing on the new generation. Sam Gutkind's coming-of-age, under the tutelage of a literati father, will not resemble Mr. Gutkind's bar mitzvah experience.

Read the full review and learn more about the book here.

Road Trip with Dad

Truckin' with Sam: A Father and Son, The Mick and The Dyl, Rockin' and Rollin', On the Road is a perfect Father's Day memoir. In the book, Lee Gutkind recounts his cross-country road trips with his son, Sam, as they traversed North America talking, laughing, learning, and bonding. As one of a growing number of “old new dads” (recent studies have shown that one in ten children are born to fathers over forty), Gutkind faced challenges—both mental and physical—not faced by younger dads, not the least of which was how to bond with a son who was so much younger than himself. Gutkind’s approach to this challenge has been to spend one to two months of every summer “truckin’” with Sam, a term they define as a metaphor for spontaneity, a lack of restriction: “Truckin’ means that you can do what you want to do sometimes; you don’t always need to do what’s expected.”

ForeWord Reviews said: “Gutkind delivers according to his reputation. Truckin’ is by turns cerebral and funny. It makes for an enjoyable ride.”

Visit the book's website for more excerpts and other exclusive content, including TriQuarterly Online's interview with Lee and Sam!

Happy Father's Day!

Keep on truckin'

Available next month, Truckin' with Sam is the story of a father and son as they drive across North America in a pickup truck—talking, laughing, fighting, and bonding. The authors, Lee Gutkind and his son Sam, have launched a great website where you can listen to the Dead's "Truckin'", read excerpts from and reviews of the book, and follow the authors' promotional reading schedule (that part coming soon).

Truckin’ with Sam is an honest, moving, and often hilarious account of one father’s determination to bond with his son, a cross-country travelogue that will appeal to old dads, new dads, and women who want to know more about how dads (and sons) think and behave. Preorder your copy of this perfect Father's Day gift today.