Justin Halpern’s Sh*t My Dad Says

In Korea in the early 2010s, a rude expression roughly meaning “ridiculous, but kind of cool” was everywhere. It was the sort of line you used when someone was remarkably good at something nobody really needed them to do.

The Korean title borrows from that moment. It was an inspired choice by Horan, the vocalist known for her work with Clazziquai, who translated the book.

Sh*t My Dad Says

The English title is wonderfully direct. Justin Halpern started out by posting things his father had actually said on Twitter. The book grew out of those posts.

Halpern’s father swore freely and had an opinion about everything. His son put the remarks online, and people took to them so quickly that some likened his father to a foul-mouthed Socrates. Under the hard language was a man with a philosophy of his own and a great deal of affection for his family.

According to the figures I remember from the time, the account reached a million followers in four months and about 2.4 million by the time the book came out. A family joke had turned into one of the biggest accounts on Twitter.

Translated by Horan of Clazziquai

An unusual detail of the Korean edition is that it was translated by Horan, best known as a vocalist with Clazziquai. She studied at Yonsei University.

A Father With the Mouth of a Sailor

The Korean translation was published in 2011. Some of its language and assumptions belong to that period, and they can land differently now.

Halpern’s father is the sort of man people used to call a tough guy. The book has no shortage of moments that show what they meant.

He cares about his work, trusts his own judgment and carries himself with confidence whether or not he has much to show for it.

His good humor won me over. A few exchanges stayed with me after I put the book down.

• As a youth baseball coach, he made it a point to give every player the same chance. “A chance? They’re all about as good as each other anyway.”
• When his son grew painfully shy around women, his father was characteristically blunt. “Nobody wants to sleep with a guy who doesn’t know how to love.”
• His father set him up with a woman whose career and bank balance far outstripped his own. When Justin came home saying they lived in different worlds, his father had an answer for that too. “Different worlds? What the hell are you talking about?”

You only get one life. Reading this, I thought there might be something to going through it with a little of his confidence and letting people see how you actually feel. I suspect other readers were drawn to him for much the same reason.

Book Information

Sh*t My Dad Says

Author

Justin Halpern, translated into Korean by Horan

Publication date

June 24, 2011 (Korean edition)

ISBN-13

9788901125411

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