SOFT-BOILED

West considers creativity, fatherhood, gender politics, and life goals in his debut memoir.

West would like to be a man’s man, or as he often refers to it, a “self-made man.” It’s a construct that troubles him as someone who dreamed of being a painter and author but has no predilection for hunting or fishing or being the household breadwinner. He continually feels inferior when comparing himself to other artists, especially in comparison to his wife, whom he calls “K,” who has had success as an author and researcher. The fact that he has yet to produce an important work or publish a book weighs heavily on him, so with this memoir, he hopes to rectify his lack of credentials and achieve the status of someone with “a name that shows up on Google with a Wikipedia page, an author photo with a sparkle in my eye that convinces the world that I matter.” His idea for his book? Shadow a private investigator named Franklin Streets as the PI digs up dirt on cheating spouses and neglectful parents and compare those experiences with the hypermasculine ideas in detective novels as well as modern philosophies of masculinity. It’s hard to judge the aim of a work that is so self-consciously “meta.” What starts off as a braided essay, weaving together West’s own experiences, Street’s complicated PI business, and gender theory becomes a kind of shaggy dog story by the end. West is an affable guide through his own self-indulgence and a good wordsmith, describing one location as a “one-stoplight, many-barn town.” The braids in this essay can feel more like parallel lines at times, but everything is tied up when West provides his own realizations derived while writing the book. How much readers will enjoy the result will depend on their willingness to take pleasure in a meandering, candid journey.

A unique, wandering study with plenty of thought-provoking, endearing twists.