Category: Bad Dad Tales

In Greek mythology, Cronus was the leader of the Titans, divine descendants of Gaia (Mother Earth) and Uranus (Father Sky). At his mother’s request, he overthrew his father by castrating him with a sickle and throwing his testicles in the sea. Told that his own sons would in turn overthrow him, Cronus devoured his first five children at birth. When his sixth child, Zeus, was born, his mother Rhea hid the child. Once grown, Zeus used an emetic given to him by Gaia to force Cronus to disgorge his other children. For another (less gruesome) bad dad story, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.

In Die Walkure, Wotan, King of the Norse Gods, strips his daughter, the Valkyrie Brunhilde, of immortality for disobeying him. He ultimately grants her eternal protection, but audiences eternally struggle to decipher the plot in Wagner’s four linked Ring operas. For an easier-to-follow story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.

Agamemnon, Greek Trojan War commander, sacrifices his daughter to win victory at sea. When the goddess Artemis, pissed he’s killed her sacred stag, calms the waters at Aulis and stalls the fleet, Agamemnon appeases her by sacrificing his beautiful daughter Iphigenia, even convincing Iphigenia that submitting to death is an act of heroism. For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.

As a caseworker at a homeless shelter, Nick Flynn, author of the memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, meets his estranged father, a self-proclaimed poet and ex-con who served time in a federal prison for bank robbery. If Flynn weren’t such a funny writer, the book would be too painful to read. For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.

Frank Conroy’s hilarious memoir Stop Time portrays an insane father, grifting stepfather, and ambivalent mother. Conroy raises himself, but beneath his funny-man exterior, the scars run deep. For the story of another bad dad who leaves scars, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Abraham in the Old Testament is ready to sacrifice his son Isaac when God orders him to do so as a test of faith. An angel intervenes at the last minute and Isaac, bound on the altar, is freed and replaced by a ram. Some commentators excuse Abraham, saying he knew God wouldn’t really make him kill his son. But Isaac wasn’t clued in and grew up traumatized. Read about another bad dad in The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Molly Brodak’s memoir Bandit describes a father who was a bank robber, gambler, and gaslighter. Brodak grew up not trusting the truth of memoirs, making readers suspicious of hers. Is this a baffling or an effective literary device? You judge. For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.

Eugene, the father in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus, a story about post-colonial Nigeria, is a respected Catholic businessman, praised for his big heart and community activism, who beats his family mercilessly. For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual 1926 Toronto contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.

Shakespeare’s King Lear, who prefers flattery to love, rewards his scheming daughters Regan and Goneril and disowns the faithful Cordelia. Lear goes mad; suicide and deaths ensue. Not one of The Bard’s comedies. For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.

In Alison Bechdel’s award-winning graphic memoir Fun Home, she describes her emotionally abusive dad as “an alchemist of appearance, a savant of surface, a Daedalus of decor” given his knack for home restoration and leading a double life as a gay man fixated on in teenage boys. No wonder the book is subtitled “A Family Tragicomic.” For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.