Lessons for Dylan: On Life, Love, the Movies, and Me

At the age of fifty-seven, movie critic Joel Siegel both became a father for the first time and learned that he had cancer. In Lessons for Dylan, Siegel shares all the things he wants his son to know--in case he's not around to tell him. It's a story about a life well-lived and about living life well. It's chock-full of earnest advice, hilarious anecdotes, a Yiddish lexicon, and recollections of everyone from Brad Pitt to the Beatles. Siegel lays out the History of the Jewish People in Four Jokes; offers Dylan manly advice on sex ("ask your mother"), culinary arts, the movies; and of course, offers a few lectures ("Be anything you want to be, but, please God, please don't want to be an actor"). Along the way, Joel teaches Dylan, and readers, a little something about growing up at any age.

At times heart-wrenching, at times laugh-out-loud funny, Joel Siegel has crafted an indelible and enduring love letter to his son, and a literary gift to us all.