{"product_id":"dad-had-a-bad-day-isbn-9781662603433","title":"Dad Had a Bad Day","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHeadshot\u003c\/i\u003e meets John Cheever in this darkly funny, deeply moving portrait of what happens when a “sad dad” reconnects with a passion from his past.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen Ned finds his old Slazenger tennis racquet buried in the garage, he unearths a part of his former self. Having recently lost his job, his sole duty is to watch over their six-year-old son while his wife works. On a whim--and without his wife's knowledge--Ned joins his childhood tennis club with a secret credit card, where he finds life outside the realm of “sad dad” domesticity. He becomes the captain of a local men’s rec league team, reconnects with his old hitting partner and former tennis prodigy, Roland, and commits his whole sad self to building a winning team. But when Roland disappears, Ned’s search for his friend threatens to consume the path to glory, the relationship with his son, his marriage, and his mind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA meditation on fathers and sons, male friendship, and the psychic pressures of an individual sport, Politanoff’s novel sits beautifully alongside the dark comedy of Iris Murdoch and the masculine angst of John Cheever, with a style all its own. Funny, poignant, and deeply relatable, \u003ci\u003eDad Had a Bad Day\u003c\/i\u003e explores our desire for structure, the emotional limits of domestic life, and the unbelievably potent, powerful, intoxicating feeling of winning.\"An excellent tennis book that embodies the agony of the sport itself. Obsessive, competitive, psychologically damaged, the manic energy that runs through Ashton Politanoff’s novel is a high-wire act sustained by his prickly sentences and imagination for interior madness. \u003ci\u003eDad Had a Bad Day\u003c\/i\u003e is deranged and also a really good time.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Kevin Nguyen, author of\u003ci\u003e My Documents\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"Call it tennis court noir. Politanoff is one of my favorite writers working today, and he applies maximum spin to every sentence of this nervy, funny, heartbreaking novel. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go practice my serve.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Ed Park, author of \u003ci\u003eSame Bed Different Dreams\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"One dark thing I love about sports: the cost of goodness is often some other badness. \u003ci\u003eDad Had a Bad Day\u003c\/i\u003e is perhaps the best novel I’ve ever read on that theme. At turns hilarious, acrid, haunted, and sweet—yet none of those notes landed where I expected. This novel wrong-footed me. It left me stumbling on the hard court, and I can’t stop thinking about it.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Giri Nathan, author of \u003ci\u003eChangeover\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This book is a triumph. Dripping in masculinity and self pity, Ned, college tennis star of yore, is thrillingly unhinged and now mooching off his hard-working, capable, professionally employed wife while he spirals in and out of old beefs and a renewed pursuit of on-court glory. Impeccably, propulsively, and hilariously rendered, Politanoff writes about tennis like Barry Hannah wrote about alcohol--something swift, addictive, fun, life-giving and also totally filthy. I gulped this book whole in a single sitting. Nobody writes like Ashton Politanoff.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Rita Bullwinkel, author of \u003ci\u003eHeadshot, \u003c\/i\u003ea finalist for the Pulitzer Prize\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eDad Had a Bad Day\u003c\/i\u003e is a funny, moving, often disturbing portrait of men—alone and in groups, as sons and fathers—filled with strange detail, bold swerves, and the idiosyncratic language of sport.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Kathryn Scanlan, author of \u003ci\u003eKick the Latch\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eAshton Politanoff is a frequent contributor to \u003ci\u003eNoon\u003c\/i\u003e, edited by Diane Williams. His writing has also appeared in \u003ci\u003eSouthwest Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eConjunctions\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eNY Tyrant\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eEgress\u003c\/i\u003e, and elsewhere. He is a former division I tennis player and his childhood coach was Robert Lansdorp, who is credited with coaching Pete Sampras, Tracy Austin, and Maria Sharapova. Politanoff’s first novel, \u003ci\u003eYou’ll Like It Here\u003c\/i\u003e was published by Dalkey Archive. He is an English professor at Cypress College.","brand":"Astra House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233066791141,"sku":"NP9781662603433","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781662603433.jpg?v=1767724413","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/dad-had-a-bad-day-isbn-9781662603433","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}