New & Current Releases
Archives: A-Z By Title
Archives: A-Z By Author
Advanced Search

All-Time High Scores
Best Of 2006
Best Of 2005
Best Of 2004
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Books In Our Forums

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed books.

The Bill from My Father
A Memoir
by Bernard Cooper


10.0

based on 11 reviews
read critic reviews
how did we calculate this?

based on 1 vote
read user comments
rate this book

Compare prices at pricegrabber.com

Buy it at powells.com

Buy it at amazon.com

Buy it at amazon.co.uk

Official Publisher Site

When Bernard Cooper receives the inheritance from his deceased LA divorce lawyer father in the form of an invoice for $2 million, an itemized breakdown of the cost of his own childhood, he pens a memoir exploring financial and emotional indebtedness.

Simon & Schuster, 256 pages
01/09/2007
$24.00

ISBN: 0743249623

Nonfiction
Biographies & Memoirs

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

San Francisco Chronicle Kevin Smokler

One of the loveliest memoirs to come along in a great while.

The New York Times Book Review Norah Vincent

At their most astute, memoirs are about more than the story of someone's life. They are about the function of memory itself, its narrative power to create and destroy, sweeten and obliterate the past in the service of the present. The Bill from My Father... is just such a memoir.

The Observer Viv Groskop

Cooper is a beautiful writer...and turns the father-son dysfunction into an emotional odyssey.

The Spectator

[An] elegant memoir.

Daily Telegraph Christopher Silvester

A masterly lesson in delivering insight and self-knowledge with compassionate humour. Bernard Cooper is an acute analyst of nuance, and this is a beguiling book.

Booklist Whitney Scott

A humorous, wrenching, but never boring exploration of a frustrating father-son relationship. [1 Feb 2006, p.16]

Entertainment Weekly Jeff Labrecque

While Cooper never breaches his father's surliness, his Sedaris-like tellings of Dad's quixotic adventures--such as the time he attacked the water-meter reader with a potato peeler--uncover love even in the most somber and embarrassing of circumstances.

Kirkus Reviews

A graceful memoir filled with pain, regret, confusion and wonder. [1 Dec 2005, p.1262]

LA Weekly Justin Clark

A poignantly lucid memoir.

Library Journal Valeda F. Dent

Overall, this is a fine book held together by the attention to detail and Cooper's ability to present painful experiences with a touch of humor. [15 Feb 2006, p.125]

Publishers Weekly

Stirring yet never saccharine, this memoir excavates a fraught history without once collapsing into cliche. [7 Nov 2005, p.66]

The average user rating for this book is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Discuss this book in our forums

Return to top of page

The Bill from My Father A Memoir by Bernard Cooper

The Bill from My Father
A Memoir
by Bernard Cooper