Tom Fudge: Parents of young kids -- people like me -- from time to time, we do lie awake at night and dread the coming of the teenage years. It's tough for a kid to become an adult and it's a process that may even be tougher for the kid's parents. And, of course, we all hope we don't end up telling a story like the one David Gilmour had to tell when his son became 16. OK, his son, who's named Jesse, didn't become a violent felon. So it could have been worse. But Jesse was definitely messing up in school and flunking out of classes.
So what did Mr. Gilmour do? He told his son he could drop out of school, on the condition that he didn't use drugs and on the condition that he would watch three movies a week with his dad. The film school solution sounds a little bit unusual, but it made sense to Gilmour, who has been a film critic and a film festival organizer.
The experiment actually turned out pretty well. So well that David Gilmour, who's also a novelist, wrote a memoir about those years of parenting. His book is called
The Film Club
. David lives in Toronto, Canada, with his son Jesse.
Guest
- David Gilmour , author of six novels. His latest book is a memoir called The Film Club.
- Jesse Gilmour is David's son. His experience dropping our of high school and watching films with his father is recounted in The Film Club .
