Bureau of missing persons : writing the secret lives of fathers /
Porter, Roger J.,1936-
Ithaca, N.Y. ; London : Cornell University Press,
2011.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Faith-Changing for Life -- Wounds of memory: shame and discovery in the Kurzem Family -- Into the belly of the beast: counterfeiting identity for survival -- Probing secret conversions: Helen Fremont's anguished inquisition -- 2. Deciphering enigma codes -- Shadowing the furtive father beyond the grave: Mary Gordon's ambivalent inquiry -- "Love Is No Detective": Germaine Greer's guilty hunt -- Family on the lam: a son running after secrets -- Scavenger in the archives: the "Memory Boy" tracks his parents -- Naked Lady's face and the detective's effacement -- 3. Men who were not there -- Sleuthing amidst the shards of the past: tracking absence in the Austers -- Letters and the flag: Recuperating a lost father -- Speaking him into the world: a daughter reenters her father's history -- Father gone missing: documenting a broken bond -- 4. Becoming one's parent -- Limits of privacy: decorum and exposure at the Ackerleys -- "Lies Like Contagious Diseases": the secrets of the Duke and His Son -- Imagining himself in the paternal matrix -- Shared screts in the Fun House -- 5. Breaking the silence -- Race, secrecy, and discovery: black on white, white on black -- Conclusion: freedom or exploitation?.
Autobiography
Fathers in literature.
Secrecy in literature.
Deception in literature.