AlternadadThe True Story of One Family's Struggle to Raise a Cool Kid in America

“The reality of permanent adulthood loomed before me, an endless plain of responsibility and difficult decisions. It was frightening, and I come from melodramatic, slightly manic-depressive stock that tends toward needless panic.” Such is the reaction of flashpoint of the parent-blogger set and McSweeney’s darling Neal Pollack, upon learning of his wife’s (planned) pregnancy.

In truth, it’s a perfect description of nearly all reactions he describes in Alternadad. Pollack and new wife Regina move to Philadelphia in a quixotic search for a rough-yet-honest city and decide to relocate after realizing that perhaps it’s a bit too rough for their liking. Transplanting themselves yet again to it’s-not-Texas-it’s-Austin, the Pollacks discover that it’s not quite the hipster paradise they’d originally envisioned. Fortunately for Elijah, born a few months into their existence in Austin, Pollack somehow manages to grow into that permanent adulthood — even if it’s a pretty steep curve. Finding his ongoing quest for hipness thwarted by the demands of fatherhood (new dads should probably not form touring punk bands), he adjusts his methods. If music is music, why not let your child dance around to a group called The Hives instead of the, “needlessy bland and wishy-washy,” kid-centric fare on Noggin? Is it possible, Pollack asks, to be both cool and a dad, or are the two mutually exclusive?

This is not to say that his only concerns are whether his son has the appropriate indie cred. The standard parenting book tropes appear: Is a drug-free birth the ideal? Who gets to pick the name? How do you get your kid into the perfect day care? Pollack attacks these subjects with dutiful irony. However, as parenting manuals go, it’s hard to discount the fact that Elijah is the product of an artist and a writer with seemingly nothing but time and disposable income. More interesting are Pollack's ruminations on urban renewal, the health care industry, and the contentious relationship between cultural assimilation and religious tradition. In fact, these insights, along with his keen wit and ability to turn a phrase, cut through the author’s slightly flat oral interpretation of his own work.

Often sweet and always well-meaning, Alternadad comes into its sharpest focus when Pollack discusses the repercussions to blogging about his family for Salon. At this point, we realize that while, yes, he would like to be a cool father, his most honest aspiration is to be simply a good father.