Lit Hub’s Book Review Roundup This Week, Headlined by Anahid Nersessian on Dad Had a Bad Day

Lit Hub rounds up five book reviews this week, and the sharpest one is Anahid Nersessian on Ashton Politanoff’s Dad Had a Bad Day. Literary Hub’s review, published in the New York Review of Books, takes apart the novel with a careful eye.

Ned’s Midlife Tennis Fix

Politanoff’s novel follows Ned, a washed-up tennis player turned stay-at-home dad, as he tries to become an Übermensch through relentless self-optimization. Nersessian describes Ned’s world as “an inheritance of anguish and misadventure,” full of “relentless self-optimization” known as “maxxing.” The prose is “terse, ominous,” full of technical terms and sports slang.

Ned lifts weights, chugs shakes, plays tennis until he pukes, and drinks too many beers at the club’s restaurant. His childhood friend and rival, Roland, is also scarred by sadistic coaches and cruel fathers. Masculinity in the novel is a battle between boy and boy, man and man, all chasing a phantom ideal of total immunity from frustration and injustice.

Manosphere Satire

The novel satirizes male delusion and middle-class ennui. Nersessian draws parallels to Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018) and Yasmin Zaher’s The Coin (2024), both of which test the boundary between self-care and self-destruction.

Ned’s identity is in conflict with his role as a parent. He calls himself a “mother bird” instead of an alpha male. The novel’s preoccupation with “abject-adjacent features” of manospheric culture shares ground with those earlier books.

Ned’s Tender Moments

The review finds tender moments amid the satire. Ned’s rapport with his son is imperfect but loving. He stays in the bathroom with Freddie while the boy shits, calling it “a mother bird” rather than an alpha male. The review calls these moments “far more urgent” than Ned’s frustrated longing for his wife, who brushes off his advances and masturbates in the shower.

There are also glimmers of erotic interest between Ned and other men. Nersessian calls these “sensual glimmers” and notes they are no match for the antagonistic sociality of straight male relationships. Those moments quickly turn into rivalry and aggression.

Nersessian’s Conclusion

Nersessian is generous in her reading. She sees Ned’s carnal curiosity as the only thing in his world that isn’t ugly or expensive. She wonders if Ned could nourish these intimations of benevolence or love, refusing to spoil them with his aspirational machismo.

Unfortunately, she concludes, he is not that kind of guy.

The Full Roundup

The roundup is a smorgasbord, but Nersessian’s piece stands out for its willingness to find tenderness in a novel about toxic masculinity.

It is a review that rewards the reader for paying attention.

Source material: “5 Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week,” Literary Hub.

book review · literature · masculinity · novel · satire