Climbing Lessons

Stories of fathers, sons, and the bond between

By: Tim Bascom

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Paperback | 7 April 2020

At a Glance

Paperback
258 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
20.32 x 13.34 x 1.47

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$26.39

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When Doc Bascom tries to show his grade school sons how to climb a huge sycamore, he ends up dropping 12 feet flat-out on his back. Stunned, he finally gasps, “So that’s how it’s done.” And in that moment, he becomes an emblem for all fathers—trying to lead the way, failing, then getting up and trying again.

This “climbing lesson” is just one of 40 playful, sometimes poignant stories by award-winning author Tim Bascom, who illustrates the special bond between fathers and sons—and how that relationship must change with time. When Tim takes his own turn at fathering, he realizes that his devoted toddlers are turning into unimpressed teenagers. No longer the hero he had hoped to be, he must accept a new, flawed version of himself, not unlike his father before him.

These brief inter-linked stories show that abiding affection can still prevail, bringing fathers and sons closer, even as they tackle the steepest parts of the climb.

Industry Reviews

“Tim Bascom succeeds in the highest enterprise of memoir: Chameleon Days moves beyond a compelling personal story to shed radiant light on history itself. His wise and tender voice makes of an exotic family story an essential chronicle of midcentury American idealism.” –Patricia Hampl, Guggenheim Fellow and prize-winning author of A Romantic Education, Virgin Time, I Could Tell You Stories, and Blue Arabesque.

“Place and populace meld here in a lovely narrative, styled for transparency. A childhood’s jitters stand recollected in tranquility.” –From the Chameleon Days “Foreword” written by Edward Hoagland, Guggenheim Fellow and author of The Courage of Turtles, African Calliope, Sex and the River Styx, and Notes from the Century Before.

“This is a lyrical chronicle filled with nostalgia, longing, dignity, and soulfulness. A good book brings the things far away close to our heart. Running to the Fire does exactly that and much more.” –Da Chen, New York Times bestselling author of Colors of the Mountain, Sounds of the River, and Girl Under a Red Moon.

“This is a soaring, lyrical story of places and friendships lost and regained and lost again, of a teenager grasping for rock in a landslide world. It haunts and echoes and begs to be read and re-read.” –Faith Eidse, editor of the anthology Unrooted Childhoods: Memoirs of Growing Up Global.

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