I came to this book as a Frank O’Hara fan hoping for something like a biography but this one is more along the lines of a Charlie Kaufman-esque book about failing to write that particular book and yet much better for having tried. Certainly, O’Hara and his milieu are ever-present, and you can learn much about O’Hara’s rich and interesting life within these pages but the real joy and sorrow here is expressed in the latter part of the title. This is a beautiful book about a daughter coming to terms with her father, his legacy, and, frankly, the fact that he was kind of a jerk. What Calhoun achieves here is almost three books in one, an O’Hara biography where his life is defined as if by negative space, a memoir, and an ode to her father who may or may not have deserved it.
— Matt, Los Angeles
“Ada Calhoun has given us a poised, magnificent memoir on family, her father, and of huge emotional and personal exploration. She delivers an unveiled perspective on capital ‘L’ literary New York. This one shines brilliantly for all to see.”
— Scott Abel, Solid State Books, Washington, DC
When Ada Calhoun stumbled upon old cassette tapes of interviews her father, celebrated art critic Peter Schjeldahl, had conducted for his never-completed biography of poet Frank O'Hara, she set out to finish the book her father had started forty years earlier.
As a lifelong O'Hara fan who grew up amid his bohemian cohort in the East Village, Calhoun thought the project would be easy, even fun, but the deeper she dove, the more she had to face not just O'Hara's past, but also her father's, and her own.
The result is a groundbreaking and kaleidoscopic memoir that weaves compelling literary history with a moving, honest, and tender story of a complicated father-daughter bond. Also a Poet explores what happens when we want to do better than our parents, yet fear what that might cost us; when we seek their approval, yet mistrust it.
In reckoning with her unique heritage, as well as providing new insights into the life of one of our most important poets, Calhoun offers a brave and hopeful meditation on parents and children, artistic ambition, and the complexities of what we leave behind.
