Father's Day

The bestselling author of Friday Night Lights and 3 Nights in August journeys across country and into the psyche of his son and traveling companion, where he finds not only the remarkable skills and debilities known as savantism, but a host of qualities we might all emulate. 
  
Buzz Bissinger's twin sons were born three minutes—and a world—apart. Gerry, the older one, is a graduate student at Penn, preparing to become a teacher. His brother, Zach, has spent his life attending special schools. He will never drive a car, or kiss a girl, or live by himself. He is a savant, challenged by serious intellectual deficits but also blessed with rare talents. He has an astonishing memory, a dazzling knack for navigation, and he can tell you the day of the week on which any date falls. Moreover, he is incapable of dishonesty, which can make him both socially awkward and surprisingly wise. One summer night, Buzz and Zach set out on a singular cross-country road trip to revisit all the places they have lived together during Zach's twenty-four years. Zach revels in his memories, and Buzz hopes this journey into their shared past will bring them closer and reveal to him the mysterious workings of his son's mind and heart.
 
At first, father and son get on each other's nerves. Buzz, a reporter by trade and nature, peppers Zach with relentless questions. Zach often lapses into deep silences when he's not making indecipherable sounds or announcing, as he does on the second day, that he hates all this driving. But as they spend more time together in their pale blue minivan, their bond strengthens. Time and again, Zach saves them from getting lost when a highway cloverleaf or hidden exit baffles Buzz. And Zach's talents aren't just spatial: he defuses many a tense moment with a perfectly timed non sequitur. As father and son follow a pinball's path from Philadelphia to Chicago to Milwaukee to Oklahoma City to West Texas to Las Vegas and Los Angeles, they see the best and worst of America and each other.
 
Along the way, Buzz fights the demons that have tormented him for a quarter-century—his own uneasy bond with his volatile, demanding parents and the persistent sense of failure he feels because he can never outdo his own early success of a Pulitzer and a bestselling book before he turned forty. Most of all he wrestles with his anxiety about Zach—the desire to make his son "normal," the shame at harboring such a desire, the anxiety about what will become of Zach in the decades ahead, when his mother and father are no longer around to take care of him. His concerns about Zach are only intensified by the fact that Zach is so unlike his twin. As Gerry thrives, the limitations of Zach's life become even more pronounced. Buzz is haunted by those three minutes that set the divergent courses of his sons' lives. Even more haunted is Gerry, who joins his father and brother in Los Angeles and shares his deep, fraught feelings about the closest, most challenging bond in his life. Buzz can never entirely allay all his fears about Zach, but their trip bestows a new and uplifting wisdom on him, as he comes to realize that Zach's worldview, as exotic as it is, has a sturdy logic of its own, a logic that deserves the greatest respect. Only with Gerry's help does Buzz learn an even more vital lesson about Zach: character transcends intellect. As father and sons converge in Los Angeles, we come to admire Gerry for how beautifully he navigates his intimate, intricate bond with Zach. And we come to see Zach as he truly is—not a man-child but a man of excellent character. Kind, fearless, patient, noble—he is in many respects a model for us all. 
  
Father's Day is a travelogue like no other—poignant, funny, frank, and revelatory—and a one-of-a-kind coming-of-age story in which a young man and his father give each other wisdom that neither of them could ever get from anyone else. 
 

About The Author:

Award-winning journalist and bestselling author H. G. ("Buzz") Bissinger has an undeniable knack for capturing the rhythms of life in big cities and small towns alike. While working as a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer, he and two colleagues shared a 1987 Pulitzer Prize for their six-part investigative series on corruption in the city's court system. A year later, reports of "the winningest high school football team in Texas history" led Bissinger to the economically depressed and racially divided town of Odessa, where he followed the team in question, the mighty Permian Panthers, on their quest for the state championship. Upon its publication in 1990, Friday Night Lights became an instant classic -- a cautionary tale about the dangers of sports obsession that remains required reading in many American high schools. It was filmed in 2004 and inspired a critically acclaimed television show.

Bissinger shines at "immersion journalism." Granted unlimited access in...

Name:Buzz Bissinger

Also Known As:H. G. Bissinger

Date of Birth:November 1, 1954

Place of Birth:New York, New York

Education:B.A., University of Pennsylvania, 1976; Nieman Fellow, Harvard University, 1985-1986

Awards:Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, Philadelphia Inquirer, 1987; Friday Night Lights named Best Sports Book of the Past 25 Years by ESPN

Biography

Award-winning journalist and bestselling author H. G. ("Buzz") Bissinger has an undeniable knack for capturing the rhythms of life in big cities and small towns alike. While working as a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer, he and two colleagues shared a 1987 Pulitzer Prize for their six-part investigative series on corruption in the city's court system. A year later, reports of "the winningest high school football team in Texas history" led Bissinger to the economically depressed and racially divided town of Odessa, where he followed the team in question, the mighty Permian Panthers, on their quest for the state championship. Upon its publication in 1990, Friday Night Lights became an instant classic -- a cautionary tale about the dangers of sports obsession that remains required reading in many American high schools. It was filmed in 2004 and inspired a critically acclaimed television show.

Bissinger shines at "immersion journalism." Granted unlimited access in the mid-'90s to then-mayor of Philadelphia Ed Rendell, he crafted a superb behind-the-scenes account of Rendell's uphill struggle to rescue the decaying city from economic decline. Published in 1998, A Prayer for the City became a New York Times Notable Book of the year. Then, in 2005, he parlayed his relationship with Cards manager Tony La Russa into the bestseller Three Nights in August, an intriguing view of major-league baseball filtered through the lens of a three-game series between the rival Cubs and Cardinals.

In addition to his bestselling nonfiction, Bissinger has produced in-depth articles for a variety of publications -- most notably Vanity Fair, where he works as a contributing editor. Among his best-known pieces are an expos�� of Stephen Glass, the disgraced New Republic reporter fired for journalistic fraud; a probing profile of the merciless, mercurial radio shock jock Don Imus; and a poignant story about the life and death of the great thoroughbred racehorse Barbaro.

Good To Know

Some fascinating outtakes and fun facts from our interview with Bissinger:

"One of the inspirations for my becoming a writer was the baseball board game Strat-O-Matic. I started playing it as a kid when I was ten or eleven. The game featured individual cards for every player in the major leagues. The results were incredibly realistic and after each game I would sit down at my typewriter and type up a game story as if I was writing for the New York Times."

"My grandmother got her law degree from Syracuse University in roughly 1911 and later co-founded with her husband an investment banking firm on Wall Street known as Lebenthal & Co. My parents worked at the firm and so did my uncle. As for my grandmother, she worked at Lebenthal until her early nineties."

"I am the father of twin sons that were born in Philadelphia at Pennsylvania Hospital in 1983. They were 13 weeks premature. Gerry weighed 1 pound 14 ounces, and Zachary 1 pound 11 ounces. They were the first male twins to ever survive at Pennsylvania Hospital. They are thriving today. Talk about miracles."

"I am 5'6" and desperately wish I was taller."

In 1998, Vanity Fair published Bissinger's article "Shattered Glass," an expos�� of the career of disgraced New Republic writer Stephen Glass, who was fired for journalistic fraud. The article was later adapted for the 2003 film of the same name.

Bissinger admits to having an "abiding hatred" for the blog-o-sphere. In April, 2008, he appeared on Bob Costas's television series Costas Now and launched an angry tirade against Will Leitch, creator of the sports blog "Deadspin."

Feature Interviews

In the summer of 2005, Buzz Bissinger took some time out to talk with us about some of his favorite books, authors, and interests:

What was the book that most influenced your life or your career as a writer?
Common Ground by J. Anthony Lukas. The first 15 years of my career were spent as a print journalist. I hungered for books of nonfiction and Lukas's book is an immaculate blend of reporting and narrative writing as he traced the roots and effects of the Boston busing crisis in the 1970s. The book serves as a model for everything that nonfiction book can be: insightful, dramatic, human, revealing. I read it 19 years ago, and nothing I have read since has ever topped it.

What are your ten favorite books, and what makes them special to you?