Truth in Advertising by John Kenney, 2013

Filled with funny one-liners, Truth in Advertising is a story of a copy writer, about to turn 40, who learns that his estranged father has fallen into a coma.

To survive a childhood dominated by an abusive, and then absent, father and a mother who commits suicide, Fin Dolan has learned to create alternate dialogs and scenes to avoid reality.

A mix of Mad Men without the affairs and Sex in the City without the sex or shoes, Truth in Advertising provides insight into the advertising world and the challenges of finding the "happily ever after" that everyone covets.

There are insightful bits and memorable scenes scattered throughout the novel. 

One can feel the nostalgia when Fin describes the excitement and pride of his first television commercial shoot compared to now, over a hundred shoots later.

The excitement is replaced by numbing predictability, and projected failure, where people involved in the shoot, including copy writers, aspire to more but are forced to settle.

Another insightful scene unfolds when Fin's abusive drunkard of a father provides great comfort to Fin after he has been teased during little league practice.

He offers his son this piece of advice: "People say foolish things.  It means they don't like themselves.  It means they are afraid.  That boy.  He's just afraid. Feel sorry for people who say mean things."

The most memorable character is Fin's Japanese counter-part, Keita Nagori.  The son of a billionaire businessman, Keita lives in his father's shadows and feels his father's disappointment each day. 

Although the sons are treated vastly differently by their fathers, Fin and Nagori demonstrate the universal struggle of sons attempting to please their fathers.

(Or, extrapolating for my own point of reference - the perpetual Amy Tan theme of daughters attempting to please their mothers.)

Despite the memorable scenes and witty one-liners, I had tough time becoming invested with the protagonist. 

At first, I thought it was a combination of being a man's voice and the nature of the protagonist himself - to be flip and non-sentimental - that made it tough for me to relate to, but Zinksky the Obscure was similar, and I became very invested in the character.

I'm not sure what it was, but I never found myself fully invested in the protagonist or book.