Sports-radio host Mike Greenberg has followed up the three female protagonists of his first novel, All You Could Ask For, with the half-dozen women in the title roles of his second, My Father's Wives.
At their son's ninth birthday party, Mrs. Sweetwater told her husband to leave and not come back. It was the last Jonathan saw of his father, and for more than 30 years he hasn't given much thought to Senator Percy Sweetwater. But he's just had another birthday and has started to question his own role as a husband and father. Jonathan wonders whether he'd understand himself better if he understood his own father more, but since Percy has passed on, he'll need to get his answers indirectly--from his mother, and from the five women who succeeded her as his father's wives, none of whom he's ever met.
Even in fiction, it's neither easy nor likely to resolve the mysteries of a lifetime in the span of a couple weeks, and by the time Jonathan meets the last of Percy's widows, he understands that he's only beginning to ask the right questions. As Greenberg fleshes out Jonathan as a character, he follows a few story threads--primarily those involving his relationship with his boss and his work--that in some ways shortchange the central plot of a son learning about himself and his father. While some readers may wish for more focus on the core of the novel, My Father's Wives features appealing characters and an interesting premise--and Greenberg's ability to get to the heart of manhood, family and relationships. --Florinda Pendley Vasquez, blogger at The 3 R's Blog: Reading, 'Riting, and Randomness