This book is a collection of short essays written by the children of “famous” men. Some of these men are ones you’ve probably heard of (i.e., Samuel L. Jackson, John Wayne, Miles Davis,) while there are also several included who don’t have the same name immediate name recognition (i.e., Herb Brooks, Michio Kaku, Donald Cabana.) Some children write about how amazing their fathers were, how normal they were, what great memories they have, while other children lament about how absent their fathers were, how demanding, how unloving. There was even one child who had never met his father, and he wrote about that impact on him.
While this was an interesting premise, I was left wanting more from almost every store. The author of this book runs a very successful parenting website, Fatherly.com, (which is where the idea for this book came from,) but while short and sweet essays are perfect for an e-zine, a book gives you so much more space to create something even bigger, and that’s what I ultimately found lacking here. I wanted more details about everyone’s relationships with each other, more stories, and just more information.
I found information about the essays’ writers — found at the end of each essay — to be the most telling… Which children used their famous fathers’ connections to be successful in the same industry, who is living an every day kind of life, who has kids of their own. Because ultimately, sometimes the measure of how successful a father really is can be seen in the legacy he leaves behind.
Disclaimer: I received an e-galley of this book from NetGalley and Artisan in exchange for my honest review. It has not influenced my opinion.