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Near the end of Kevin Sweeney's though-provoking Father Figures comes a paragraph that wonderfully sums up his quest to learn what makes up the heart and soul of a father and a man -- and what many believe is one of the best rewards of parenthood.

His young daughter, Julia, is on the family’s front porch as he drives home from work. Her reaction, when she sees him, is priceless: “As I parked the car and walked up the driveway, she ran toward me, her arms wide open. And she said the words I must have said long ago.

“’Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.’ It was the most joyous sound I have ever heard – a young child so madly in love. As I scooper her up in my arms, I finally understood that I, too, had loved my daddy that much,” Sweeney writes.

It was a long and sometimes difficult road for Sweeney to travel to this realization. His father died when Sweeney was 31/2, the same age Julia was when she called his name.

For Sweeney and his five brothers and sisters, the road to being a “grown-up” was tough. For the young ones like Sweeney, who barely remembered their father, there was a need to learn about the person their father was while determining who they were as individuals. In an era when the roles of men and women, mothers and fathers, were set in black and white, Sweeney decided that he needed a father – or several – to learn how the be a man.

Father Figures pays homage to a trio of fathers of Sweeney’s childhood friends who – unbeknownst to them – were the primary stand-ins for Sweeney’s dad.

By all accounts, the stand-ins did a good job.

Sweeney has had a successful career as a television reporter, a press secretary to Colorado Sen. Gary Hart, a public relations executive for a hip outdoor clothing company and now as an environmental consultant. He still toys with his dream of being the media guy for the San Francisco Giants and is as engaging and cheerful a person as one is likely to meet.

Though the book is properly billed as a search for his father and father figures, it also is Sweeney’s “memoir lite.” We see his challenges and how his extended family deals with them.

There are some disturbing moments. When the teenage Sweeney begins drinking too much, his normally subdued mother blurts out in hysterics that he should know of his father’s drinking problem. The revelation, which was unexpected to Sweeney, is one of the jolts that shows Sweeney’s road was more difficult that he usually lets on. Eventually, he is steered to the correct path by one of his three surrogate fathers.

The strength of the surrogates in his life gives the book its weight and resonance. The story is valuable to anyone at any age who’s searching for who he is. Sweeney explains that it’s never too late for re-evaluation and life adjustments.

This is a tale of finding a life path, not just searching for a father.

Sweeney made good choices. One surrogate father taught him the value of being there – and waiting for a quiet moment to compliment a child so that he or she hears. Another taught him about respect and generosity – and the value of getting the children out of the house to give your spouse a break. The third taught him about strength and steadiness.

When Sweeney grew up, he was different from these three men. Yet their teachings stuck, proving that their mettle transcended geography and lifestyle.

The book is an outgrowth of an essay about people living in communities where the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks once lived. At times there is an uneven flow to the prose, as if the writing has not moved beyond a Web site essay to a book. Some of the materials seems hasty and does not flow in context.

But the powerful punches and strong concluding chapters outweigh those flaws, and Sweeney finally is at peace with his dad.

Tom Squitieri