ABSTRACT
Michael and his two-years-older brother were brought up by their mother. Their father left her and abandoned the family immediately after Michael was born. Michael, now in his early thirties, has seen a photograph of his biological father, but has no recollection. The father Michael “lacks” is someone who behaved totally incomprehensibly toward Michael, his mother, and his brother-today Michael cannot even guess at a word that would describe his father’s character or motivation. Though Michael deeply loves his mother for the sacrifices she has made and the hardships she has endured in order to raise him and his brother to turn out all right, Michael continues to feel a longing that is as much for a real father as for an answer to his bewilderment: how could someone do that? how could someone do that to me? how could someone do that to us? Though Michael at times wishes he’d had a father for the selfunderstanding he feels that would bring, Michael is quite clear that he does not wish for the presence in his life of an adult man who would behave like the father he actually had.
