Truth in Advertising

Finbar "Fin" Dolan, a copywriter approaching forty at the Manhattan advertising agency Lauderbeck, Kline & Vanderhosen, narrates how his estranged father's death forces him to confront the emotional wreckage of his family and the emptiness of his carefully constructed life.

The novel opens with a formative anecdote: in high school, Fin fabricated an entire term paper about a legless Vietnam veteran, earning an A for work that was wholly invented. He reflects that the impulse to construct truths others would believe led naturally to advertising.

Fin oversees a chaotic commercial shoot for Snugglies diapers, working alongside his art director partner and closest friend, Ian Hicks, and their producer, Pam Marston. During the shoot, Phoebe Knowles, the creative department assistant and Fin's other closest friend, mentions that his brother Eddie has called about their father. Fin deletes Eddie's number. His family is fractured: Eddie is in Boston, his sister Maura left finance to raise children, and his brother Kevin is gay and lives in San Francisco. The siblings rarely speak.

Fin describes the creative department as "the land of misfit toys" and places himself in its lowest tier. He introduces Frank Lauderbeck Jr., the agency's clueless figurehead; Frank's eccentric partner, Dodge Vanderhosen; and Martin Carlson, the brilliant English executive creative director who actually runs the agency. Fin also reveals he canceled his wedding to Amy Deacon six weeks before the ceremony, unable to commit to a life that felt like obligation.

Martin assigns Fin to lead a Super Bowl campaign for a revolutionary biodegradable Snugglies diaper, canceling his Christmas vacation. Eddie calls during the briefing and reports their father is in serious condition at a Cape Cod hospital. Eddie says he will not visit.

On Christmas Eve, after attending a client pitch meeting, Fin stands at JFK about to board his flight to Cancún. Overwhelmed by memories of his father's violent mood swings, he watches the plane pull away, then buys a ticket to Hyannis to see the father he has not spoken to in twenty-five years.

At Cape Cod Hospital, Fin finds his father unconscious and sustained by machines. He feels nothing but a desire to leave. Memories surface of his father's violence, including beating Kevin after neighborhood children caught Kevin kissing another boy, and Eddie, then a teenager, attacking their father in retaliation. The next day, their father left for work and never came home. Fin's mother deteriorated and eventually died driving her car into an elm tree; a letter she left confirmed the act was deliberate. At the wake, Fin's father appeared briefly, said their mother "deserved better than me. You all did," and left.

Phoebe invites Fin to Christmas dinner with her family in Brookline, a suburb of Boston. At the Knowles home, Fin discovers wedding photos revealing Phoebe was once married, a fact she never shared, and confides to Phoebe's mother that his own mother killed herself. That night, he and Phoebe walk through snowy woods to a hilltop overlooking Boston. He wants to kiss her but cannot act, paralyzed by fear.

Back in New York, the creative teams brainstorm Super Bowl ideas. The arrival of Keita Nagori, the son of the Japanese shipping magnate who owns the agency, adds a new dynamic. Over drinks, Fin and Keita bond over disappointed fathers and meaningless titles.

At 4:12 A.M. on New Year's Day, Fin's father dies. At the hospital, Fin receives a plastic bag of personal effects: a wallet, a silver lighter engraved with World War II battle locations, and a Sears family photo of the four Dolan children.

At a Boston law office, the attorney reads the will to all four siblings. There is no money, only a letter revealing that their mother had an affair and asked their father to leave, contradicting the story the siblings believed their entire lives. The letter requests that his ashes be spread at sea in the Pacific, at the coordinates where his submarine was when the war ended. Eddie calls it lies. The siblings leave without the ashes; Fin goes back and takes the box.

Alone in his apartment, Fin opens a separate letter addressed only to him. His father describes being trapped in the tiller room of his submarine during a Japanese attack, holding the hand of a dying shipmate for hours in the dark. He writes that the guilt and terror of the war shaped who he became, and that he chose Fin because the others would discard the request.

At a bar after the agency holiday party, Phoebe gently suggests Fin should honor his father's wish. Fin erupts in rage, grabbing her arm and shouting about his mother's suicide. Ian pulls him away, and Fin flees in shame. That night, he calls Eddie and persuades him to FedEx the ashes to Los Angeles, where Fin will be for the shoot.

The Super Bowl shoot in Los Angeles brings further chaos: uncooperative babies, a struggling director, and the news that FedEx has lost Fin's father's ashes. The ashes eventually arrive, and for the first time in twenty-five years, Fin and his father are under the same roof. During the shoot, Phoebe quits the agency. She tells Fin a Frenchman has proposed to her, but she said no. Sitting on the steps of the Leave It to Beaver house on the Universal backlot, Fin tells Phoebe the truth he has never shared: he followed his mother on his bike the day she died and witnessed the crash that killed her. That is how he got his scar. That evening, Keita challenges Fin's stated reason for honoring the request. Fin says he is doing it because his siblings will not. Keita tells him the real reason should be simply that the man was his father, and this is what sons do.

Keita accompanies Fin to Hawaii, arranging for one of his father's cargo ships to take them to the specified coordinates. In a lifeboat lowered from the ship, Fin opens the container: not a dignified urn but a piece of Tupperware, a detail that overwhelms him with sadness. He pours the ashes into the Pacific wind and e-mails the video to his siblings, signing off, "Much love, Finbar."

Back in New York, the client kills the Super Bowl spot: New research shows the diaper does not work as claimed. When Frank announces a new pitch, Fin delivers a profane tirade and walks out. On a bench by the Central Park Zoo, he allows himself for the first time to relive the memory of his mother's death without rewriting it. He calls Phoebe, and they meet at the petting zoo. He asks her to come on vacation using his unused honeymoon tickets. She says, "Give me a reason." He tells her there is only her. At JFK, they discover the tickets have expired; instead, they take the subway to Coney Island, where Fin tells Phoebe he loves her.

Martin offers Fin the chance to keep his job, revealing his own loss of a brother killed by a drunk driver. In the weeks that follow, the Dolan family begins to reconnect. Maura calls. Kevin invites Fin to San Francisco. Eddie visits New York, confides he is getting divorced, and compares the family to the crew of Apollo 13: off course by a small degree, the error magnified over years. "Still time, though, maybe," he says. On the sidewalk, the brothers embrace.

Fin returns to work and to his life with Phoebe. They cook dinner, explore the city, and read in bed. He reflects that happiness is not a destination but the accumulation of present moments, and resolves to stop viewing life from a distance.