Redeeming the Prodigal Father

Seen one way, Michael Brendan Dougherty’s My Father Left Me Ireland: An American Son’s Search for Home, tells an old story: the primordial tale of a son’s search for his absent male parent. In this updated version, our Telemachus is an American, and Odysseus is an Irishman – one who split up with the boy’s mother before the author was born, remained in Ireland, and went on to have another family.