Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/writer-michael-chabon-explores-regrets-pleasures Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Pulitzer-prize winning author Michael Chabon sits down with Jeffrey Brown to talk about his new book, "Manhood for Amateurs." Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: And finally tonight, writer Michael Chabon looks at manhood in a new collection of essays.Jeffrey Brown has our conversation. JEFFREY BROWN: Michael Chabon has given a wide range of male characters in his fiction, including young students and middle-aged academics in "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" and "Wonder Boys," a hardened private detective "The Yiddish Policemen's Union," and two World War II-era comic book creators in the Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay."His newest male character is himself in his first work of nonfiction, "Manhood for Amateurs," a collection of essays examining what Chabon calls "The Pleasures and Regrets of a Father, Husband, and Son."Michael Chabon joins me now.Welcome to you. MICHAEL CHABON: Thank you. JEFFREY BROWN: One of the thing — "Manhood for Amateurs." One of the things that comes through loud and clear is that this role, father, son, husband, for you and indeed — and maybe for all of us, we're all amateurs. MICHAEL CHABON: Yes, absolutely.I mean, just the idea of an amateur, I think one of the first things you think of when you heard the word is someone sort of bumbling, not necessarily doing the best job, maybe even making it up as you go along.But, for me, the word has other, deeper, richer senses, too, that are still part of our understanding of the word.It comes from a word — it comes from a French word that means a lover, an enthusiast, someone who is passionate about something. And it still sometimes has those connotations. And we do have this idea, still, of like the amateur athlete, the person who is doing it for love, for love of the sport, and not for money.And, so, I think, for me, it's both senses, that I don't really know what I am doing. I am just making it up as I go along. I keep making mistakes. I often keep making the same mistakes. But I also — it is the source of so much of my passion is being a father, being a husband, being a son, you know, being a brother.My relationships with the people around me as a man are the source of both my work and of all the pleasure that I get in life.