In Big Daddy’s Rules, Raising Daughter is Tougher Than I Look we meet a dad of two young girls. What initially makes the story engaging is that the dad is Steve Schirripa, actor and star of numerous TV hits including The Sopranos and The Secret Life of An American Teenager. Steve is also a very large, intimidating man from New Jersey. He fits the mold of an angry Italian onscreen and the written stories of him being a dad are educational, funny and something I could relate to.
To be clear, I’m a mid sized man from the south, but his stories, attitude and passion for what drives him is what I could relate to. When I was reading the book I found myself enjoying it. I stopped for a moment, put aside the fact that he was occasionally mentioning parenting stories from famous friends and re-evaluated my feelings for Big Daddy’s Rules. And I still really liked it.
One reason I liked the book is that the chapters are short and consist of a story in his experiences as a dad. They stories don’t seem to have any point of connection, they don’t segue into each other, they’re just consistently entertaining.
What makes most of his stories funny is the curt and coarse language used in some of them. Cursing has its place in comedic writing and the book seems like it was simply typed out after Schirripa recorded the stories.
The stories have logic, flow and a certain snap that leads readers to know that he doesn’t take crap from his daughters or situations that don’t go the way they should. He doesn’t seem like a spoiled Hollywood actor. Certainly he has a nice income and supports his family well, but he’s an involved dad and has taught his daughters important life lessons.
The meandering feel of the book may irritate some readers, but I found it very refreshing. Combine that with the punchy, coarse humor with true stories and this was a book that I didn’t think I would like, but ended up really enjoying.
We were provided with a copy of the book for review purposes.
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