Overview
The Prodigal Father, written from the perspective of a man who both lost and regained his position in his son's life, maps the process of estrangement and the route to reunion. Grounded in a decade of work in adult education, most notably as cofounder of The Artist's Way workshop techniques, Bryan is an adroit and inspiring practitioner of the skills needed to rebuild lives. His work as a counselor with troubled teens as well as his history as a teen father, an estranged father, and finally a reunited father allow him to know the problems of father absence inside out. Bryan's voice, from the heart and the heartland, speaks for disenfranchised fathers and families everywhere.Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewJune 1997
If you are a father estranged from your child, a single mother hurt by a man who refuses to parent, or someone who lost contact with a father through separation or divorce, Father's Day can be a difficult and painful holiday. This Father's Day, join Mark Bryan, author of The Prodigal Father: Reuniting Fathers and Their Children, and take the first step on the road to establishing — or reestablishing — the fragile relationship between an absent father and his child.
The statistics on father absence speak for themselves: More than half of American children will not be raised by their birth fathers; 30 percent of children of divorce have never been inside their father's homes; 50 percent of divorced fathers see their children only once a year. In his groundbreaking book, Bryan addresses these statistics by looking beyond the stereotype of the "Deadbeat Dad" to the regret and pain suffered by estranged fathers. Then he offers a proven, step-by-step program to help these men assume a vital role in their children's lives.
The success of the program outlined in The Prodigal Father is grounded in Bryan's extensive work in adult education, both as the coauthor of the bestselling The Artist's Way and most recently as the director of the Father Project. The eight-step program helps estranged fathers negotiate the sensitive and tenuous path to reunion and includes advice on making amends to a child's mother, planning and initiating the reunion, and establishing an ongoing relationship. Bryan rounds out this program with aspecialsection urging mothers to help in the reunion process.
Bryan knows of the grief of separation and the triumph of reunion firsthand. He married his high school sweetheart at 16 and fathered a son at 17 but was divorced within two years and lost contact with his son for 14 years. Throughout The Prodigal Father, Bryan tells the story of his own turbulent road to reuniting with his son, Scott, as well as the reunion stories of people he has met through his Father Project workshops. With Bryan's practical advice and moving honesty, The Prodigal Father brings solutions and hope to one of the biggest and most critical problems facing our society today.
Publishers Weekly -
This is a timely book; the terrible effects of father absence on children and fathers alike are more widely recognized and taken more seriously now than ever before. Bryan himself fathered a child at age 17, married his son's mother and then separated from them both less than two years later. Here he recounts the story of his own tortuous journey back into his son's life after an absence of 14 years. As he tells the story, he provides a modified 12-step program to help other absentee fathers; many chapters end with checklists, assignments and self-questionnaires, and there is also an appendix to help mothers of the children involved. Although some men will be put off by the recovery-movement jargon in the book (the reader is advised to take "gratitude walks," for instance), those who are prepared to make the difficult journey back into their estranged children's lives will find much practical assistance here.Library Journal
Bryan has put together an admirable package of anecdote and action to get the men who are among divorce's victims moving to heal themselves and their broken relationships. The director of the Father Project and affiliated family research projects at Harvard, Bryan knows the terrain. He married and divorced at a young age; his own odyssey of making things right with his son is powerful and moving. Through his work with other fathers, he has expanded the boundaries of his experience, and here he writes powerfully of men's diminished role in our society's increasingly one-parent families. While acknowledging the difficult underlying causes of family breakup, Bryan urges positive action. Toward that end, the book provides exercises and guidance in soul-searching and corrective action for fathers wanting to build bridges to their children and even the divorced spouse. With reunion and respect the goals, Bryan has provided a valuable manual, written from the trenches.-- David M. Turkalo, Suffolk University Law School Library, Boston