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J. Steven Svoboda is a member of TheMensCenter Advisory Council, an Independent attorney active in human rights law and Executive Director of Attorneys for the Rights of the Child (ARC).
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By J. Steven Svoboda... |
Stories of Manhood: Journeys into the hidden hearts of men
Edited by Steve Biddulph. Sydney, Australia: Finch Publishing, 2000.
Steve Biddulph, already probably Australia’s premier men’s movement author with Manhood: An action plan for changing men’s lives and Raising Boys, has crafted another stunning book. Stories of Manhood: Journeys into the hidden hearts of men, billed as a companion volume to Manhood, may be all the more impressive for the fact that it is an edited volume. Certainly the book’s virtually unequalled emotional and topical range is central to its undoubted strong appeal to anyone interested in men and in the dialectic now raging to establish a new balance of power between men and women.
Biddulph evidently possesses not only a keen voice of his own but also an uncanny knack at bringing together a set of authors who are exceedingly diverse in many different respects—background, topic, perspective, voice. Peter Carey contributes one of the most moving pieces I have ever read, “A Small Memorial” to some children of his who passed through his life and their lives all too quickly. Carey’s honesty and spare yet emotionally expressive writing can hardly fail to bring a little mist to the reader’s eyes.
Charles Fransen needs only one page to describe a small epiphany, in which he comes to realize that the happiness of an ailing daughter matters more than his boss’s anger. Ian Hargreaves takes many of us as close as we may ever want to come to a vasectomy and—in the author’s case—its aftermath, which proved painful in more than one way. The author maintains a light touch and avoids self-pity. Leo Schofield memorably sets forth not only abuse suffered in a “Christian Brothers” religious school but also a complex, even compassionate (if unforgiving) portrait of his abuser, a sexually and psychologically twisted instructor memorably nicknamed “Itchy.”
Michael Pollard tells us how his “goofy brother,” his Big Brother, through some timely and tough-minded yet loving advice, helps him to stay out of jail and eventually set his life moving in a good direction. Nancy Lerner, evidently the only female lead contributor to this volume, also provides its longest piece, regaling us with intoxicating tales of her tribulations as a teacher in an all-boy school. She finds that with eccentricities of hair and dress restrained and the freedom from the inevitable pressure cooker of girls’ presence, boys paradoxically found themselves freer to forge their own individual identities. Eccentric intellectual Kevin thrived, as did a superlatively competitive (and top-ranked) student who somehow learned to gracefully relinquish his premier position when an Asian genius joined the school. The school’s boys earn to relate to and respect an extremely curvaceous and corresponding talented young female teacher.
Bob Ellis finds a way to come to terms with his aging mother’s gradual (and lovingly detailed) departure from this world. Bill Brandt contributes a breath-catching photograph of a man home from the mines, bent over a bucket while his wife helps him in the no doubt vain struggle to clean himself. “The ancient partnership between men and women” is aptly captured in this haunting image.
The volume contains numerous other pieces, including a United Nations’ official’s daring rescue of several East Timor natives, a man’s gritty and compassionate story of caring for his own father despite the mixed relationship they had in earlier years, and a husband and wife’s struggle in nineteenth century Scotland over the proper punishment for a child who stole some eggs. Many other noteworthy contributions are also included in Stories of Manhood, which benefits from Finch’s usual top-of-the-line layout and production values. Even the cartoons give the reader periodic breaks that are very welcome. Since Finch ships worldwide, you may want to buy Steve Biddulph’s delightful book and read all twenty-six of the pieces he has collected for yourselves!
©2000 J. Steven Svoboda
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