Daddy - Hardcover

Steel, Danielle

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385297661 ISBN 13: 9780385297660

Publisher: Delacorte Press, 1989

Synopsis

Oliver Watson's world suddenly dissolves around  him when Sarah his wife of eighteen years, returns  to Harvard to get her master's degree. Oliver is  left on his own, with three children and a freedom  he never wanted and doesn't completely understand.  His family's needs and demands suddenly consume  his life.

When Oliver's mother is  diagnosed as having Alzheimer's disease and dies soon  thereafter, Oliver's father's life is changed as  well. Braver than his son with less of a future  before him, George Watson, at seventy-two, quickly  embraces new relationships and, eventually, a new  life. The sudden changes come as a shock to both  father and son.

Ben, Oliver's oldest  son, rejects his father and reaches outward, under  the illusion that he is grown-up and can make it  on his own. Melissa, the middle child, blames  Oliver for her mother's desertion. And Sam, the  "baby," is too shaken to deal with it at all.  Now the only parent, Daddy must  somehow cope this, his troubled family and  explore a world of new responsibilities, new women, and  new experiences. Each of the three men must start  a new life: Oliver in New York and then in Los  Angeles with his children, once he faces the  biggest change in his life; his widowed father with the  woman next door; and seventeen-year-old Ben with  his girlfriend and baby. Nothing is as it was  before... nothing is as they once thought it would  be. But in the end, different is better...  different is more... for each of them--and especially  for Daddy.

About this title

Review:

Bestselling author Danielle Steel paints a poignant portrait of Oliver Watson, a man who thinks his life is perfect--he has a great job, a beautiful home, a good relationship with his parents, three healthy children, and a loving wife. Things change the day Oliver Watson comes home from work to learn that his wife is going away to graduate school, leaving him to play full-time daddy, super-employee, and son-on-call; Oliver soon discovers that it is impossible to "have it all," all by himself. Through trial and error, and by watching the courageous examples set by his teenage son coping with his girlfriend's unplanned pregnancy and his father learning to love again after the death of his Alzheimer's stricken wife, Oliver discovers for himself that love can occur more than once and dreams can change for the better. One of Steel's best! --Alison Trinkle

From the Back Cover:

The internationally renowned novelist, Danielle Steel, probes the hearts, minds, and lives of three men and three generations, in a new novel of heartsearing intensity. Oliver Watson has worked hard to build a safe, predictable world. But suddenly it seems to dissolve around him. The marriage he thought was perfect crumbles after eighteen years. His mother is killed in an untimely accident, leaving his father newly widowed and trying, at seventy-two, to build a new world for himself. Oliver's eldest son rejects him and reaches out towards a life of his own, a life he is not mature enough to handle. Melissa, his daughter, unequivocably blames her father for her mother's desertion, while Sam, the 'baby', is too shaken to deal with it at all. Now the only parent, 'Daddy' must somehow cope with his troubled family, even as he explores an unknown world of new responsibilities, new women, and new experiences that are funny, sad, touching, scary, poignant, but always real.

About this edition

• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0385297661
• ISBN 13: 9780385297660
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352