Finally! A novel that tells the truth! Buy it!

[antonin]

As a college professor I can tell you there are absolute no novels, plays, or films that address a father's plight in the divorce/custody quagmire from an understanding viewpoint. KRAMER vs. KRAMER was the first and last that even approached the subject.

A professor in Michigan has written a novel entitled The Gantlet that effectively details the horrors of the legal system and the custody/divorce industry.

I URGE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU TO VISIT AMAZON.COM AND ORDER THIS BOOK. The least we can do as a group is to support those who manage to find a way to portray our plight in the media. God knows the news won't help us. HOPEFULLY THIS BOOK WILL GET MADE INTO A FILM! The book is The Gantlet and the author is Leigh Travis. Here is a sample review:
"As a psychologist specializing in this area of practice, I have made a good living helping people deal constructively with divorce-but, in all candor, they seem to represent a decided minority. Travis' novel is consistent with my own observations, i.e., that in the epidemic of "Out of the Picture" Dads, there may be more than meets the eye.
This story of a determined father's tortuous struggle to remain in his child's life after divorce is as compelling as it is relevant to our times. In a culture where fathers are widely viewed as superfluous at best, there are precious few examples in literature, film or music of a much different reality, of fathers as devoted parents who bring profound and inimitable gifts to their children's lives. Travis' novel places such a father at the center of a father-child love story, which--after divorce--goes very, very bad indeed. It chronicles a father's Kafkaesque journey through a corrupt legal system that sentences both father and child to a gantlet of unrelenting obstacles-and unrelenting reasons to give up on one another-every step of the way.
Though fundamentally about love, this is a painful story that reminds us that character is sometimes, under insane circumstances, as much a curse as a virtue, and that while love should always prevail, this might not always be the case. It seems unfair to both writer and reader to reveal the ending, but let it suffice to say that the reading is a memorable experience. It is enough to make grown men (as well as women) cry.
And think.
What more can one ask of a novel? "
If you're looking for a novel that challenges you as a human being: Strongly Recommended.
If you know the pain all too well: Essential Reading.