A Father's Story

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If readers are expecting sensational revelations from this earnest memoir by the father of mass-murderer Jeffrey Dahmer, they will be disappointed.

But for most parents the world over, these and similar worries are the only ones they will have to face. It's heartbreaking and of course covers all the obvious and familiar terrain of how gut-wrenchingly awful Dahmer's crimes were, but with an added twist (i. He says very firmly that all this shoving the responsibility onto this person or that person or alcohol or drugs, it’s all bullshit. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.For at any moment, in the middle of comedy, at the tail end of drama, just before a commercial, we might suddenly see the face of my son, a face that I, at least, profoundly did not want to see. we are the space of our isolation, we are the space defined within our limits, the limits change, the isolation remains.

It seemed to me that Jeff's behavior during the preceding weeks had been more or less the same as mine had been on those occasions when I'd suddenly found myself thrust into unfamiliar surroundings. He probes the nature of evil and questions if some individuals are inherently predisposed to malevolence.He sees people, relationships, and the world in terms of their ability to meet his needs, whatever those needs might be. In his book, "A Father's Story," Lionel Dahmer shares his personal journey and struggles in coming to terms with his son's heinous crimes. what's unexpected is the candor, humility, and thoughtfulness of his account, and the little ways in which its genuine strangeness bypasses "shock value. Jeff has always has a uncomfortable hold over me, I am fascinated by the human psyche and just how far the rabbit hole goes.

Deeply thought provoking - this book provides us with more questions than answers, but in essence just confirms that no one knows a person truly if they are keen on keeping a lot of secrets. But I wasn't told what these other mothers and fathers were told, that their sons were dead at the hands of a murderer.Rather than having developed a natural fatherhood, I had learned, as if by rote, what a father should do. So much speculation on what the actions we take as parents, or the genetics passed on to our children, can do to create the "perfect storm" of a compulsive killer like Jeff.

Eventually, Dahmer learns to cope with the reality of his son's deeds and starts focusing on helping other parents prevent similar tragedies. The fact that seemed hardest to understand was that we, ourselves, had done nothing to deserve such unwanted attention. Overall Thoughts: Reading a memoir or biography without pictures is like having a cookbook without pictures of the recipe. I also don't like that Jeff's prison minister pretty much said that if Jeff had had God in his life, the murders wouldn't have happened. It seems like Lionel was more focused on having the reader empathize with his own plight rather than providing any deeper revelation on his son.Lionel, however, isn't happy with the "perfect storm" scenario, which is admittedly vague and non-specific.