Stengrow's Dad

the long version

Stengrow on his journey in search of his One True Dad, meets and falls in love with the beautiful Daphne, becomes a master of subliminal advertising, and almost loses his life. Reynold Stengrow just wants to be a good son. Not easy when you have 36 possible Dads, geniuses all, donors to Dr. I. Lord Genius Sperm Bank. So, until he finds his One True Dad, Stengrow must honor his Black Muslim father at the same time he's honoring his neo-nazi father, while immersing himself in the ancient traditions of his Jewish TV-producer Dad. Not to mention all the other citizens, millionaires, politicians, poets and failures who may possibly be Stengrow's Dad. In the course of his innocent, comic, ultimately tragic pilgrimage, Stengrow becomes an American Everyman, seeking his own identity, seeking a way of life he can believe in, as he makes his way through a nation that has become, here at the end of the millennium, a maze of conflicting truths, often - like Stengrow himself - at war with himself. Hallmark makes no card for Stengrow's situation."Katz"s writing has the Orwellian feel of being dead right." Russell Baker, The New York Times