When environmental consultant Sweeney, who was three when his father died of heart failure, turned eight, he chose three men who were friends of his family to serve as stand-ins. At the time, the men didn't know the role Sweeney had picked for them, but they wound up teaching him invaluable lessons over the course of his life. Part memoir, part tribute and part guide for those who have lost a parent, this book (which is based on a Salon.com article Sweeney wrote shortly after September 11) is a thoughtful, touching and realistic look at how children cope with loss. "I did not feel fatherless," Sweeney writes, "not exactly, even though my mother never remarried. I had a strategy for coping. I was a kid with a plan." In spare, unadorned prose studded with touching details, Sweeney relates what it was like to lean on, and learn from, the men around him as he charted his own path to adulthood. The book is a testament of children's strength and resilience in the face of loss.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
The author was three-and-one-half years old when his father died of congestive heart failure at the age of 38. When he was eight, and faced with growing up without a father, Sweeney came up with a plan: he would choose three men who were close to the family, fathers themselves, and he would watch them, learn from them. They were, although they may not have known it, fathers by proxy. Although coming-of-age memoirs are hardly in short supply, this one stands out from the pack by adding a new twist on an old theme. We all base part of ourselves on other people, but few of us do it quite so consciously; Sweeney set out to learn, from these three fathers, how to be a man. We watch him grow up, watch how he fashions himself into a young man, and later a young adult, with the (unknowing) assistance of these three men he has selected to guide him into maturity. This is a remarkable story of family, love, loss, and resilience. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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