John Freeman at Granta invited me to be one of the writers contributing short memoirs of their fathers, over at Granta.com. The web pieces are a supplement to the Fathers issue in the print edition, and it’s a fascinating series, with pieces by Jonathan Lethem, Gary Shteyngart, Jess Row, Ali Smith, Maud Newton and Ben Anastas, among others. Please click and check them out.
This piece is part of something longer, a nonfiction novel inspired a little–formally–by J.M. Coetzee’s third-person memoirs (Boyhood in particular).
Koreanish 
your dad sounds like a person with a ton of gut! crashing the buffet, asking your mom out… freaking just heading off to the states when his dad wasn’t looking! geez. what a cool guy.
angelle: Thanks. Yes, he had a ton of gut. And was much beloved.
Alex,
I loved the piece. It inspired me to write about my own father. Thanks for the creative nudge.