Advance praise for Raising Raffi:
“My brother wrote a book about my nephew, and this book made me laugh and tear up. It’s a book about love: the love of a father for his child, of course, and also the love of an adult son for his parents (our parents), the love an emigre feels for the language (Russian) and culture (Soviet Jewish emigre) of his home. It’s a book about the way love makes us feel powerless one minute and strong the next. It’s a beautiful book, and you should read it.”
—Masha Gessen, National Book Award-winning author of The Future Is History
“Until recently, fatherhood was, in many places, an arm’s-length affair. In Raising Raffi, Keith Gessen puts the emerging phenomenon of engaged fatherhood on the literary map, with a raw, wry, introspective chronicle of the first five years of dad life. It is a story of Macy’s engagement rings, missing heartbeats, vaginal geysers, playground violence, Russian children’s literature, racially segregated schools, and more. It raises profound questions about what it means to raise a boy when the old ways of being a man have been discredited and the new ones have yet to saturate. If you are a father, want to be a father, have a father, or are thinking of leaving the father of your children, then this book is for you.”
—Anand Giridharadas, New York Times bestselling author of Winners Take All
“In this beautiful book, a father’s love and anxiety test themselves against the sometimes-dubious popular philosophies of parenting, the memories of Gessen’s own upbringing and the harsh interruption of real world events. Parents who have doubted themselves and tried to untangle the mystery of young humans—in other words, all parents—will recognize themselves in this vulnerable and finely wrought memoir.”
—Megan K. Stack, author of Women’s Work
“Keith Gessen is one my favorite writers, and Raising Raffi brings to bear everything I love about him: his fierce intellect and fiercer compassion, his deep reflection and pitch-perfect humor. This fatherhood shit ain’t easy, but Gessen might just help us make it through.”
—Adam Mansbach, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Go the F*ck to Sleep
“I didn't know I was waiting for a book like this until I read it. Raising Raffi is original, funny, and full of heart.”
—Daniel Alarcón, founder of Radio Ambulante and author of At Night We Walk in Circles
“I would read Keith Gessen writing about anything but having his curiosity trained on the thorny, existential subject of parenthood is pure heaven. I read this book about the neurosis (and the joy!) of the 21st-century parent in a fugue state, grateful to Gessen for his humor and insight.”
—Meaghan O'Connell, author of And Now We Have Everything
