Rock Meet Window: A Father-Son Story
By: Jason Good / Narrated By: Aaron Abano
Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins
WOW! Was this a tearjerker? Or was it hilarious? I simply CAN’T decide!!!
Aaron Abano, at least initially, appeared to have all the wrong tones as a narrator for this book: He seemed oddly too smooth, oddly too jocular, oddly tooooo much like some weird removed anchorman. The opening scene, after all, is of Jason Good’s father TOTALLY SPAZZING OUT and force-feeding his son a cooked beet with EXPLETIVE: Eat the beeeeeeeeet, dammit!!!!!!
Good’s father blows up A LOT in this uproariously funny memoir of dealing with his terminal diagnosis. The man simply can’t help but shriek about a person’s civil liberties, about human rights, about the state of the world. And yes, beets MUST be eaten. But maybe only after loads, and loads, and LOADS of meat products (Dear ol’ Dad is a Carnivore Extraordinaire even tho’ Mom’s eating habits always elicit a: Good GOD, do you HAVE to eat like a bird?!?)
The two, father and son have always had a fraught relationship, but when it all hits the fan and father is diagnosed with leukemia at age 68 and is given only a few months to live, we see how truly close and fantastic their relationship is.
Enter Abano as a neat narrator: I laughed soooooo much as Jason completely breaks down on the airplane to see his folks, and as he has an East Coast Meltdown amongst the genteel folks of the West Coast. I really, really saw Abano’s fearless delivery from that moment on.
Cuz there are many, MANY meltdowns. And there’s much scarfing of meat. And there are even trips to buy medicinal marijuana, to be shared with his paranoiac son who will NEVER smoke pot again after THAT hell.
But there’s also Dad weakening, Dad failing. And Jason finds that he LIKES that his father is dying because that means he gets to help his father do things, and he gets to be the comfort and strength his dad needs.
There are hospital scenes; there are scenes of a loving family. I can’t tell you how many times I’d be laughing at the way Good phrased something only to feel a sucker punch of sorrow follow. It’s written that well.
So I can’t tell you if Rock, Meet Window is a tearjerker that’s also funny, or if it’s a humorous essay that’s also very, very moving.
You’ll just have to listen to it for yourself.
And DO get back to me; I’d LOVE to hear what you think!
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