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.
