I Had a Father: A Post-Modern Autobiography

Noreen Mitchell is a librarian with the Toronto Public Library.

In this nonfiction account of his own life and that of his father, Clark
Blaise returns to themes he addressed in his short-story collections,
Resident Alien and Man and His World. Blaise reveals, in a fragmentary
rather than chronological way, memories, facts, and details about his
upbringing, family history, career, and marriage. At the heart of the
memoir is the author’s relationship with his father—a man whose
Québécois heritage, four marriages, itinerant lifestyle, criminal
proclivities, and violent temper all affected Blaise’s development
both as a man and as a writer. This remarkable and poignant book speaks
to anyone who has ever tried to draw meaning from what is essentially a
universal accident of birth.