Reviews for Truth In Advertising

Booklist Reviews 2012 November #2
*Starred Review* Finbar Dolan, a copywriter churning out mediocre commercials for a Madison Avenue ad agency, views himself as if through a long camera lens, using denial and humor to avoid a painful past and feelings of failure. Christmas, for him, will be spent alone in Mexico--at least that's the half-baked plan. Until his boss assigns Fin the impossible task of writing, prepping, producing, editing, and mixing a Super Bowl ad--over the holidays--for the world's first eco-friendly diaper. Then his estranged brother tracks him down. Their abusive father is in the hospital, and it's up to Fin to visit the dying man because no one else will. Over the course of a wacky commercial shoot, Fin learns about forgiving, loving, reconnecting with family, and finally telling the truth--to himself and others. Here is a close-up view of the advertising world, the artistic misfits who people it, and one man's grasp at happiness. Written by a former copywriter and contributor to the New Yorker, Kenney's debut novel is a masterful blend of wit and seriousness, stunning in its honesty. A novel sure to appeal to fans of Nick Hornby. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

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BookPage Reviews 2013 February
An adman's midlife crisis

Fin Dolan, advertising agency copywriter and narrator of John Kenney’s engaging first novel, is approaching his 40th birthday while still “waiting for my life to begin.” That Kenney, who brings to this story his own experience of 17 years in the advertising business, is able to transform a man who’s basically drifting through life into such an appealing character is a tribute to his skill. Belying its debut status, Truth in Advertising is a mature novel that veers from pathos to humor and back without a misstep.

After eight years with a New York agency owned by Japan’s largest shipping company, it’s easy to understand why Fin thinks he’s stuck in neutral. He fights to keep his creative juices flowing while crafting ads for a demanding diaper manufacturer, and he’s only recently ended his engagement for reasons even he doesn’t fully understand, leaving him with two first-class airline tickets but nowhere to go. When he’s recruited to produce a Super Bowl commercial for the world’s first biodegradable diaper—a job that will require him to abandon his plan to flee to Mexico alone for the Christmas holiday—he’s tossed into the middle of a nasty existential crisis.

If Kenney had been content to confine his story to Fin’s floundering performance at work and nearly nonexistent love life, this novel would be entertaining enough, if slight. Instead, he layers over the sharply observed, often witty portrait of Fin’s professional and personal troubles an empathetic account of his protagonist’s struggle to come to terms with the legacy of an abusive father.

For Kenney, the business of advertising—a business that exists to sell us products we didn’t even know we needed—serves as a proxy for the world of work that, for most of us, consumes the majority of our waking hours. “We settle into a life,” Fin muses. “Maybe we made this life or maybe it simply happened.” And yet, he concludes, “We look for something deeper than merely a paycheck.” There’s a certain nobility in this story of an Everyman whose stumbles and small triumphs illuminate our own lives.

Copyright 2012 BookPage Reviews.

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Kirkus Reviews 2012 October #2
The dilemma of the storyteller powerless to shape his own story gets a beautiful new spin in this first novel about an adman facing a family crisis. Welcome to the shoot. It's a TV commercial for Snugglies, the world's biggest diaper brand. The producer's just learned that Gwyneth (yes! Paltrow!) is leaving a day early, upending the schedule, and they've been using the wrong diapers (wasted film, wasted dollars). Those hiccups and baby puke aside, really, everything's fine. The narrator of this hilarious opening is protagonist Finbar Dolan, 39-year-old senior copywriter at a top-tier New York agency. (Kenney himself is a veteran copywriter.) Fin is Boston Irish, the youngest of four siblings. Their father was an abusive cop; he left them when Fin was 12. Their mother committed suicide. The children went their separate ways. Fin found an escape in advertising; he enjoyed writing the false narratives that commercials demand. He tried to write his own narrative, asking a sweet-natured woman to marry him, but his heart wasn't in it, and he broke off the engagement eight months ago. Now, his oldest brother, Eddie, is calling to say their father, unseen for 25 years, is in the hospital, a heart attack. Reluctantly, Fin goes to the Cape, and we temporarily leave the crazy roller coaster of the ad world for Fin's family. The Dolans are frozen in time, as haunted as an O'Neill family. A late revelation (Kenney peels the onion with care) shows why Fin is the most traumatized of the four. But this is not a bleak novel. Kenney is marvelous on workplace camaraderie. Fin's two best friends are co-workers. One of them he's in love with, but the dummy only realizes this when it's almost too late. With wry humor, always on point, Kenney guides us through the maze of work, family, love (elusive) and friendship (a lifesaver). This is an outstanding debut. Copyright Kirkus 2012 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.

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Library Journal Reviews 2012 December #1

Finbar Dolan, a thirtysomething writer at a prominent New York advertising agency, is lost. Life in New York has no more appeal. And while he enjoys the perks of first-class travel and his large salary, writing diaper commercials has become meaningless. Distanced from his siblings, Fin is thrown off course when his brother calls with news that their estranged father is dying; Fin is further surprised to find himself at his father's bedside at Christmas. Now with a deadline looming on a Super Bowl commercial, Fin struggles to forgive his parents, figure out what is important, and finally say what he means to those about whom he cares the most. VERDICT This debut novel by a frequent New Yorker contributor is not a coming-of-age tale, but it carries that same wonder of transition as you watch Fin Dolan grow and change. With wry wit, excellent pacing, and pitch-perfect, often hilarious, dialog, Kenney has created something remarkable: a surprisingly funny novel about an adult American male finally becoming a man. Highly recommended.--Jennifer Beach, Cumberland County P.L., VA

[Page 79]. (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Publishers Weekly Reviews 2012 October #2

The debut novel from New Yorker humorist and former advertising copywriter Kenney is a hilarious ad-world satire and a modest family drama. Finbar Dolan has a successful career in commercials, managing a diaper account for a big New York agency. Otherwise, Fin's life is a mess: he broke up with his fianc�e a month before their wedding, is infatuated with his office assistant, Phoebe, and is estranged from his entire family. When his workaholic boss drags him into the office over Christmas to craft a Super Bowl commercial for biodegradable diapers (one of the concepts involves attaching Al Gore's head to a global parade of Earth-friendly babies) and his abusive, long-lost father turns up in the hospital, Fin's universe is tipped on its ear. The advertising insider lore and commercial shoot set pieces are golden; the family drama is less successful. Although set up to seem high stakes, events outside Fin's control guide his family crisis away from father-son conflict and toward less compelling internal struggles. As a satire, the novel is willing to bite off an ambitious chunk of popular culture, but as a human drama, it chooses to make safe choices. Even so, much is a comic tour de force; fans of Nick Hornby and Jonathan Tropper will have a new author to watch for. Agent: David Kuhn. (Jan.)