'Daddy' Dwells In The Moments After Something Awful Happens
Emma Cline's new story collection never digs into the nitty-gritty details of how her characters have gone wrong. Instead, she focuses on what happens after the affair or the addiction or the firing.
The title of Emma Cline's first collection of short stories and sophomore book, Daddy, tells us more about what the work lacks than what it contains. The fathers in Cline's stories perform their familial duties with little sincerity or gusto.
In "Northeast Regional," Richard is more concerned with how he appears as a father than actually parenting his teenage son Rowan. A violent incident involving Rowan and a schoolmate forces Richard to go retrieve him from his private boarding school and thus reflect on his fitness as a like he tried.
