My Father's Wives

by Mike Greenberg

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.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Adult Fiction, Adult, Book Club, Audiobook

223 pages, Hardcover

First published October 7, 2014

Reviews

[Sharon Orlopp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book in one setting. It's a novel about a man wrestling with questions about his marriage and he decides to meet his father's five ex-wives to try to learn more about his deceased father. The last time he saw his father was at his 9th birthday party.

It's a quick read that is written masterfully by Mike Greenberg, the co-host of ESPN's Mike and Mike.

[Melinda · Rating 2 out of 5]

The novel has an interesting theme of chasing perfection.

I exhausted all effort in understanding Greenberg’s estranged relationship with his father while simultaneously trying to figure out his wife’s alleged infidelity, I felt it failed to entwine the indiscretion scenario, it just didn’t work for me even after the narrative ended. I tried to view the link through male eyes, yet there is a strong unmistakeable disjointed feeling. After all is said and done the reader will be scratching their head attempting to figure it all out. The premise is interesting but the route a clear miss for this reader.

Jonathan is a likable character, he didn’t wow me in any way. His outrageous lifestyle, his shocking discovery evoked zero emotion. His lack of confrontation is a copout, and it’s no surprise this privileged man living the so called ‘perfect life’ is ill equipped to handle any trial life delivers. If what he witnessed was the worst this man has experienced in his life, I pity him when life really delivers a haymaker. His affluence was a turn off, after the discovery you realize this man hasn’t experienced harshness in any form. Clearly his perfect world is in shambles thus leading with his admitted obsession of perfection and his discovery of what perfect really encompasses.

Greenberg possesses competent writing, my issue was with Jonathan and his uber lush life and the way he handled his wife’s possible gaffe. The wife’s mystery wasn’t, the father was introduced but vaguely, a little more development would have possibly helped. A beach read of the wealthy and their frivolous issues they lack emotional capacity to handle, too manufactured for my taste.

[Caitlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was predictable from about 1/8 of the way through. I already knew what had happened, and to my dismay, I guessed correctly. I hate when I can correctly predict the outcome of a book.

The correlation between the wife's supposed affair and his seeking out the truth of his father, was such a stretch. They had nothing to do with each other. It just didn't tie in well for me.

There wasn't much a of a plot, other than the main character stressing over his dead dad and his suspicions about his wife.

It really was just kind of a blah story. Not much to it. A whole lot of filler for a nearly non existent plot. :-/

*I received this arc from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Sorry...honesty sometimes gets a one star.

[Marla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jonathan Sweetwater has it all. A wife he loves, two beautiful children and an amazing job that gives him privileges like playing basketball with Michael Jordan. What he didn't have was his father Senator Percy Sweetwater in his life since his 9th birthday. Jonathan comes home early and thinks he sees his wife having an affair in their spare bedroom. This sets into motion Jonathan wanting to know more about his dead father so he sets out to meet all of Percy's wives and learn more about him. What he doesn't expect to find along the way is himself. This book is beautifully written. It covers around a week or 2 of Jonathan's life. I found it very fascinating and pulled into Jonathan's life. Well worth the read.

I won this book on Goodreads.

[Yaaresse · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing is technically competent, but this is a very forgettable book that wavers somewhere between a mystery that isn't, Gary Stu having an angst-fest, and an attempt at a story about introspection in which the character never gets around to being introspective. In other words, it's a lot of reasonably literate words that don't seem to have much point behind them.

Jonathon Sweetwater is the son of a popular former Senator, a father he had no relationship with after a disastrous ninth birthday party, which doesn't stop Johnny from being a little daddy-obsessed deep down inside. He's also obsessed with being successful, basketball, and having "the perfect" family. Sure, he has to travel a lot in his high-profile Wall Street job, but when your BFF is the perfect powerful Wall Street Boss, you get to use the corporate jet on a whim, and you're rich enough to throw around money like it's confetti, what's a few nights away from home now and again? His "perfect life" seems to blow up when he thinks he sees his wife fooling around, and Johnny Boy goes into full crisis mode, which weirdly takes the form of confiding in his BFF boss, hiring a detective, and running to Mommy rather than confronting his wife.

Daddy Sweetwater, who seems loosely based on Ted Kennedy (including the "Lion of the Senate" nickname), married six times. Aside from his mother, Johnny boy has only met one of the women very briefly. After his mother points out that he needs to get over his aversion/obsession conflict with his now-dead father, Johnny decides to locate the other five ex-wives and have them tell him about Daddy Dearest. Weirdly, all five welcome him with open arms and are only too happy to talk about this God Among Men with him.

The whole thing is just weird. And in the middle of it is Michael Jordan for a special one-on-one game of b-ball that seems to serve no purpose but to be a wet-dream for the author, whose day job is as a host of ESPN shows, so I guess that's the male equivalent to chick-lit featuring designer shoes or something. (Come to think of it, he does mention the Air Jordons a few times.)

Oh, and none of that is a spoiler (maybe the Michael Jordan thing, but it's got nothing to do with the plot or how the story ends, so...no.) It's all right there in the synopsis.

Then ending is completely predictable. In fact, the only eyebrow raiser in the whole plot involved the Perfect Boss and an IT guy, and that may have been one of the more interesting things about the book. Still, it was foreshadowed to the point that it was more of a "uh huh" than a "say what?"
The characters are very flat, especially the women. The characters' motivations are paper-thin, and there is far, far too much "as you know, Bob" going on in the dialogue.

I didn't hate it, but I doubt I'll remember anything about it in a few weeks.

[Shesani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I entered the drawing for this book hoping to win it for my husband (which I did). He's an avide listener to the Mike & Mike Radio cast. So I was super excited when I won! Yet, instead if giving it to him first I decided to read it, I was intrigued.

While the main character, Jonathan Sweetwater, seems to be the typical "Ivy bound, I'll make it on my own rich kid" he does seem to live the life that most mean dream of. Only to be met with the in house demons that plague most men.

I didn't find his work situation quite believable as in he partied and played more with his boss than actually working for him, but aside from that. It was okay.

THe jounerny to understand his own relationship while diving in to the relationships of his father is a commedable expedition, but I feel that in Jonathan's situation a simple sit-down conversation with his wife, would have made for a better resolution, yet with out the journey there is no book.

all-in-all I enjoye the book, and hope my husband does as well.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I was chosen a First Reads winner, and received an ARC of My Father's wives by Mike Greenberg in the mail. That in no way influenced the review that follows.

I really liked the premise of this novel and it got off to a deceptively excellent start. Not long into it, however, the predictability of the tale became somewhat disappointing. I finished it, hoping for a sense of resolution that, for me, never totally arrived.

Jonathan Sweetwater, the protagonist, lives a charmed life in many ways. When he suspects that his wife may be having an affair, rather than confront her, he launches into a search to know his dead father, Percy, through his six wives. Jonathan's journey is captivating in some ways and yet falls short in others.

Mike Greenberg's writing style is enjoyable and comes easily. His love of sports is evident in the book; he also happens to be the co-host of an ESPN sports program. If you read it, you will see what I mean, but I won't spoil that here by describing it.

A good book; there are some aspects of Jonathan's journey that I'd have liked for Greenberg to delve into deeper in order to have made it a great story. Thanks for the opportunity to read the ARC; it was a Saturday well spent.

[Anita · Rating 2 out of 5]

The opening hook led me to believe that I was going to get a realistic story from Mike Greenberg's male point of view. His protagonist, Jonathan Sweetwater, had a serious problem with his wife; or did he? Instead of resolving "that" question, he decided to do some soul-searching by globetrotting across the country and abroad to visit each of his deceased father's four ex-wives and the widowed wife in order to learn more about the man who deserted him when he was nine years old. (He'd already interviewed his mother, wife number 1, for a total of 6 wives.)

The dialogues with the women were interesting enough to maintain my anticipation of the thickening of the plot. Even the sporadic, disjointed additions of a few other characters and a Michael Jordan scenario did not deter me.

And then it ended. Whaaat?

I was listening to an audio version while driving three hours. Did I see some cows and zone out for a few minutes?

So before I wrote this review, I glanced at a couple other readers' thoughts and got the answer to my question. No, I didn't zone out.

[Libby · Rating 2 out of 5]

A tough review for me to write because I felt the heart and love from the author for his story and characters. It just didn't hang together for me. Husband sees evidence of his loving wife having an affair. Rocked, he immediately. ..uh...drops everything to travel the world to track down, meet, and quiz his late father's six wives, because, uh, he hadn't seen his senator father since age 9 and..oh who the hell knows. I kept waiting for him to return to his domestic crisis at hand. He does learn some things about himself, via their recollections of his dad, from the six wives. But instead of feeling interested, I felt mostly like these meetings were a puzzling interruption in the interesting problems introduced in the first few pages, which the author...I mean the husband...never really addresses.

[Beth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Firstly, thank you to my good friend Krista for requesting this review.

I was initially excited to explore this character's experience in getting to know his father through the several women he'd been married to. However, while the content was interesting, the writing was such that none of the women were really distinct from one another. Despite names and occupations etc, all of the ex-wives had similar speaking patterns and similar opinions. Individually they did not add to the growth of the character or the knowledge of his father. It was as if he talked to the same person several times.

Great content, but the writing is indefensible.

[Dawn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was going to give it two stars but then Michael Jordan arrived and after that all I could do was sneer. This had to be the least realistic drivel that I'd read in a long time. If that man had dropped one more hundred dollar bill on a counter I might have thrown the book out the window. And,as has been pointed out in other reviews, you could see the ending coming well before even halfway. Yikes!

[Darla Peterson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Early on I figured out the ending of the spare room due to the author telling is about Beverly a f what he did to her accidentally and how she looked so much like his wife. I didn’t see a lot of connection between him “finding himself” by having dinners with his father’s wives and thinking his wife was unfaithful. If only he had opened the door when her heard those sounds behind the closed door, he could have saved us from reading a boring book.

[Sherry Zbierajewski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book showed how a man discovered himself through memories of his Farther and ex-wives. Twist and turns expose how lived choices frame us.

[Jill · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was going to give this two stars but then he played basketball against Michael Jordan. Ugh, this whole book was super super cringey.

[Travis Hatch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This took me a long time to read for such a short book. I never really got drawn in. It was an interesting book but it was just so...perfect. Things just always ended up ok. And Michael Jordan was there.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an adult, the son of a famous senator is moved to investigate his deceased father's background. The father abandoned his first wife when the son was 9 years old, and went on to have 5 more wives. Son is successful, but has always been unsure of "who he is" and how his father has influenced him. An incident in which he comes home and observes a sexual act in progress through the bedroom keyhole rocks his conception of his own marriage, and he goes on a quest to learn what he can about his father through the ex-wives. The story was moderately interesting, but it seemed that for such a successful businessman, he actually had very little work to do. And he was very slow to realize the obvious conclusion about his own marriage.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Searching for His Father

Jonathan Sweetwater loves his beautiful wife and two attractive children. He's living the corporate lifestyle, always on a jet to somewhere often with the CEO of his firm. One afternoon, missing his children, he arrives home early and finds a scene that devastates him. He thinks he's found his wife in bed with another man.

Instead of confronting his wife and dealing with whatever the situation turns out to be, he decides that he can handle it better if he knows more about his father. His father was a famous six times married liberal senator. Jonathan hasn't seen him since his ninth birthday party. He had no relationship with his father who is dead, but now he thinks he might be able to understand the man and as a result himself if he meets the wives.

Jonathan is an engaging character. His angst and trying to get to know his father at this late stage carry the novel. The other characters fade into the background. The wives are stock characters, except for Alice, Jonathan's mother. His wife and children are sweet, but not well enough developed to become real people for the reader.

I felt the plot was thin. Jonathan is obviously upset about the scene with his wife, but he takes a rather convoluted way to deal with it. I found the link between his wife's infidelity and getting to know his father a stretch. The ending is predictable from early in the novel, but it's predictability is not important, it's what Jonathan learns.

The book is a quick read, the settings lush, and there are some good insights. For light reading, it's a reasonable choice.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I previously read "All You Could Ask For" and loved it, so knew that I would read Mike Greenberg's next book which turned out to be "My Father's Wives". Greenberg has a very natural and likeable writing style which makes you feel like you're hearing the story from an old friend, and makes the story go fast in the telling. He quickly immerses you in the story and makes you want to keep reading. His characters are interesting and relatable.

This is a story of a man (Jonathan) who thinks he has the perfect life and marriage, and then begins to doubt that life when he fears his wife may be having an affair. Unsure how he wants to handle the situation, he decides that meeting all of his dead father's wives might help him know what kind of man his father (who left the family when Jonathan was 9 years old, had no further contact with the boy) was and what he was looking for in each of his marriages. Jonathan thinks this knowledge will help him figure out what he wants of his own marriage, whether he is like his father, and ultimately, what kind of man he himself is.

It's interesting to see the impact of the absence of the same-sex parent on the life of the child become man. It also is a good reminder that despite the facts, doubts or fears in and of our lives, we each have a choice on the kind of person we want to be and how we want to view our lives.

[Mary Jo · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book started slow, and I figured the pace would pick up. It never really did. This is a book with really no plot and no story. In the beginning, John comes home early from work one day and sees through the keyhole a naked man and woman in their guest bedroom. Instead of confronting them, he leaves. He is bothered endlessly by not knowing if his wife is cheating on him or not, but instead of asking her, he keeps it to himself but gets obsessed and starts bugging his poor mother about it. Then he goes on a journey to talk to each of his deceased father's ex-wives. Whatever the hell that has to do with his wife having an affair or not, I have no idea. He ends up never asking her about it and assuming it was really a friend of hers who looks like his wife, but why she would be having sex in their house is something I guess he never felt the need to question. I thought this was a horrible book and a waste of time, when I could have been reading something good.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I picked MY FATHER"S WIVES, I knew it wouldn't be what I usually read. I chose it because the author was the co-host of Mike and Mike In The Morning on ESPN Radio and the various TV channels. He;d written several sports books and I wanted to see what he could do with a novel.

Jonathan Sweetwater lives a great life. Money, a job he loves, and a family he dotes on: wife and two children, girl and boy.

A crisis with his wife Claire sends him on an odyssey that will take across the country and even to London: to learn more about his father, Percival III, a man he hadn't seen or spoken to since he was nine. A respected Senator, he was gone now, but Jonathan sets out to meet the five wives after his mother and see what he could discover.

Along the way, he learns a great deal about father. And even himself, before he resolves his own issues in his life.

Quite well done.

[Dolores · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jonathan Sweetwater has the perfect life....he is best friends with his very wealthy boss and has a lovely wife and two sweet children, not to mention plenty of spending money. Then he comes home early from a business trip and discovers his wife in a seemingly compromising position with an unidentified man.

Shaken by this, he decides he needs to understand himself better, but first he needs to understand his father, a five-term senator who deserted him in childhood but has since died. In order to do this he will visit each one of his father's six wives.

This book was pretty enjoyable but I had a problem identifying with the characters because of their incredibly affluent life style.

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would, after reading some early reviews. I like the way Greenberg "uses" words, as much, if not more than his writing, which is really quite good in a simplistic way. As Faulkner is quoted saying about Hemingway, "He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." However, when I can extract something meaningful out of a book, that makes it well worthwhile. "I was thinking about how funny life can be. There are moments when nothing makes sense at all. And then there are moments of total clarity..." page 210

[Tracy Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very readable book, but the main character lives a completely unrealistic life and lifestyle. There is no way to relate to him or his life at all. There is not enough development of any of the characters in the book to like them or dislike them, and in that respect it is an extremely sterile accounting of a story about . . . relationships? Perfection? I don't think I could tell you at the end. I don't have a sense of what he was searching for and whether he ever found it. Or whether it mattered.

[Ann Mulholland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good story. I wasn't sure what to expect from a novel that wasn't sports from a sports talk host (Mike Greenberg from ESPN's Mike & Mike). When I think of show he is talking about sports in front of a row of bobbleheads.
But this was a story about a marriage, and the husband's past which is causing him to question his life.
Read this in 2 days. I would look for other books by this author

[Mrs Mommy Booknerd http://mrsmommybooknerd.blogspot.com · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was awesome! I really enjoyed it! It was fun to be able to follow the journey that Jonathan went on to not only sort out his personal life but to also find out about who is father was and how that has formed him as a man, husband and father! I wa fully engaged and entertained. There was enough going on that kept us all turning pages. There is a bit of everything! 4.5 stars

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast read. I could not put it down. His father had 6 wives, all different and interestingly written. I like that as he goes on this journey, he learns to appreciate his life. I like happy endings. Others have complained that this is not a new theme. Sometimes it is good to see that people can change and love may not be perfect but can endure. I enjoyed it.

[PacaLipstick Gramma · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh...

I am so not in to reading about some uber rich, spoiled, designer/monogrammed clothing, label conscious, jet-setting, doesn't have a clue about "real" life, and can't handle a crisis person that I almost gagged. I thought I was reading about a male version of Paris Hilton.

[Cynthia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel just didn't work for me.

[Jayme C (Brunetteslikebookstoo) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I LOVED the author's other book, "All You Could Ask For" and highly recommend reading that one, even if this wasn't one of your favorites!

[Ang · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main character was sort of unlikeable. Which you know, is a bad sign. (Also, the basketball with Michael Jordan scene was really dumb. Sorry Greeny. REALLY dumb.)