Book Review – Love Sex Fleas God

Confessions of a stay-at-home dad by Bruce Clark (Umuzi) ISBN: 9781415201701

The point of no return was reached with two simple words, ‘I’m late’.

When Bruce Clark (48) discovers his wife Christine (38) is pregnant, he is in his own words ‘Mr Stunned’. Still trying to come to terms with what it means to be a husband and trying to find his way in the career minefield, he didn’t anticipate that parenthood would turn his life upside down.

This is brutally honest memoir—often funny and bittersweet, sometimes too angry and self-indulgent—of what it means to be a stay-at-home parent to his son and daughter. It is, as Bruce points out, a simple job that is surprisingly difficult. It is the most important job in the world. Clark traces his life from his fractured relationship with his mother, his difficult youth and feelings of disenfranchisement in the new South Africa until he meets Christine — she is his soul mate, his anchor.

His story will strike a chord in all parents: we all have the chance to see our own innocence in our children, to find joy in them that we perhaps didn’t have or remember.

Faith Parker
3/5