Senator's Sex Scandal and Its Effects on His Family

Jennifer Weiner says in the acknowledgments section of "Fly Away Home" (Atria, 2010) that this book "actually got its start ten years ago, before anyone had heard of Silda Spitzer, Elizabeth Edwards, [or] Dina Matos McGreevey..." Her novel about a senator whose affair with a young aide is discovered and becomes a big scandal is, then, very timely. (However, we should remember that there has always been such behavior by some politicians, but in the past it was more likely to be hushed up, whereas now everything is on the news, blogs, gossip sites, etc.) In any case, this novel is less about the affair and the ensuing publicity than about the effects on the senator's longtime wife and on his two grown daughters, each of whom is already struggling with her own difficult personal issues, which include drug addiction, low self-esteem, an unhappy marriage, and adultery. During the course of the story, each of these three women learns much about herself and about each other, draws closer to her family members, and gradually works toward a better future. The story is not profound, but it is engaging, readable, and enjoyable.