Book excerpt: ESSAYS, JOURNALS, LETTERS & OTHER PROSE WORKS. "One of the first things I learned about fatherhood was that my father was right: it was hard and it kicked the shit out of your life plan."--Lev Grossman. "I wanted to hold him. I wanted to hold him close and never let go. But we have to let go, don't we?"--Andre Dubus III. "From some of today's most critically acclaimed writers comes a rich collection of essays on what it means to be a dad. Becoming a father can be one of the most profoundly terrifying, exhilarating, life-changing occasions in a man's life. Now 22 of today's masterful writers get straight to the heart of modern fatherhood in this incomparable collection of thought-provoking essays. From making that ultimate decision to have a kid to making it through the birth to tangling with a toddler mid-tantrum, and eventually letting a teen loose in the world, these fathers explore every facet of fatherhood and show how being a father changed the way they saw the world--and themselves.