Release Date: January 20/2014
Acquired: Print ARC sent by publisher
Goodreads: ADD
Purchase: Amazon/Indigo/Book Depository
The co-host of ESPN’s Mike and Mike follows up his New York Times bestseller All You Could Ask For with this poignant story of one man's search to understand himself, his marriage, and his father.
“Mike is as clever, astute, and perceptive as he is brilliant. . . . I can’t wait to see what he does next.”—Jane Green, author of Tempting Fate
Jonathan Sweetwater has been blessed with money, a fulfilling career, great kids and Claire, his smart, gorgeous, sophisticated wife. But there is one thing Jonathan never had: a relationship with his father.
Percival Sweetwater III has been absent from his son’s life since Jonathan was nine years old. A five-term U.S. senator, now dead, Percy was beloved by presidents, his constituents, and women alike, especially the five women who married him after Jonathan’s mother.
Jonathan hasn’t thought about Percy or the hole he left in his life for years. Dedicated to Claire and his family, he’s nothing like his serial monogamist father. But then Jonathan discovers evidence that everything in his marriage may not be as perfect as he thought. Hurt and uncertain what to do, he knows that the only way to move forward is to go back.
On this quest for understanding—about himself, about manhood, about marriage—Jonathan decides to track down his father’s five ex-wives. His journey will take him from cosmopolitan cities to the mile-high mountains to a tropical island—and ultimately back to confront the one thing Jonathan has that his father never did: home.
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My Father's Wives opens with the catalyst, one that's experienced in an almost dream-like state. Jonathan Sweetwater came off as two things at once for me: the extremely loving and attentive father, and the pretentious bastard. I had high hopes after the "big incident" at the beginning, but quickly learned that the book planned on heading in a completely different direction. My Father's Wives entailed exactly what the title suggests. Jonathan goes on a worldwide search to find, and speak to, his father's five wives, hoping they can shed light on his new found crisis through descriptions of his father.
But it wasn't that, at least it wasn't for me. I found very little correlation between Jonathan's dilemma, and his need to question these women. I actually cannot recall the moment when he decides that doing so might ultimately help him. One minute he's away for work, or at home with his children, the next he's in St. Kitts hearing about how needy his father was. To be fair, Mike Greenberg wrote these moments well, individually. His writing was meaningful when it mattered, and completely superficial when it needed to be. I didn't figure out early on what was happening with his wife, and I found the many wives of his father to be entertaining in their diversity. I just wish it was a story about either Jonathan's marriage, or his search to know a father he never got to know. My Father's Wives didn't work well as both.
The conclusion of this book was slightly ambiguous, which is exactly how I dislike them. I think this author has some great potential, but I felt like it was wasted with this particular narrative.
Recommended for Fans of: Contemporary, Mystery, Tom Perrotta.
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Mike Greenberg is the cohost of ESPN's Mike and Mike, the highest-rated sports talk program in the United States, and the author of the New York Times bestselling books All You Could Ask For, Why My Wife Thinks I'm an Idiot, and Mike and Mike's Rules for Sports and Life. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and a native of New York City. He currently lives in Connecticut with his wife and two children.
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Thank-you to Trish from TLC Book Tours for hosting this tour, and to William Morrow for sending me a print copy to review! CLICK HERE to follow the rest of the tour.
Darn, I'm sorry this book didn't quite work for you, but thanks for being a part of the tour.
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