Review: Ashton Politanoff's "Dad Had a Bad Day" Uses Tennis to Explore Fatherhood and Masculinity
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Summary
A review of Ashton Politanoff's novel "Dad Had a Bad Day" (Astra House, 2026), which uses tennis as a narrative vehicle to explore themes of fatherhood, masculinity, and family dynamics. The review examines how Politanoff blends sports writing with literary fiction, drawing comparisons to his debut work and situating the novel within contemporary literary trends around masculinity and parenting.
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Twitter / XReview: Ashton Politanoff's "Dad Had a Bad Day" Uses Tennis to Explore Fatherhood and Masculinitylareviewofbooks.orgKey quotes
· 3 pulledIn Ashton Politanoff's second novel, tennis becomes a vehicle for exploring fatherhood and masculinity.
It's a strange, magnetic, destabilizing text—exactly the kind of work you'd expect from a writer who refuses to be easily categorized.
Politanoff's prose is at its most incisive when describing the quiet tensions that define family life.
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