After Visiting Friends by Michael Hainey

Sometimes you find a book, and other times a book finds you. This book found me. One day on a hike, my friend Noelle suggested this book. She knows what I like, and she said this author went to Northwestern, like I did, and was about my age. It turns out Michael Hainey went to Northwestern at the same time I did and went to the Medill School of Journalism for undergraduate and graduate school, just as I did. And, to top it off, our fathers both went to Medill in the mid-1950s and knew each other well. They even double dated a few times. I do remember meeting Michael in college because my dad told me to find him and introduce myself. So I ordered this book on audio from my local library. I then devoured it, sometimes refusing to get out of my car because it was so good. Part memoir and part mystery, After Visiting Friends tells the story of Hainey’s father who died at the age of 35 alone on a Chicago street. Michael was just 6 years old. His father worked as an assistant copy desk chief at the Chicago Sun-Times and ran with a crowd of rough-and-tumble reporters and editors. His father’s death was shrouded in mystery and left behind a young widow with two small boys. The death was labeled a “heart attack” but the label and the circumstances surrounding his father’s death never felt right to Michael while he was growing up. The book follows the adult Michael’s delicate and poignant journey to uncover the truth about his father’s death. The book is beautifully written and fascinating from beginning to end, filled with a web of interviews that make up his investigation. When I finished the book, I felt compelled to write to Michael and tell him how much I loved his book. Finding Michael was quite easy because he is the Deputy Editor of GQ magazine. I found his email on the web including a series of pictures of Michael with his super cool wife, a fashion executive named Brooke. (Google them: Michael and Brooke Hainey. They are real-deal New York fashionistas. I felt frumpy just looking at their pictures). So I wrote to Michael immediately. I told him I loved his book, and reminded him of our connections from Northwestern. I hit send and then waited. A few hours later – on the same day! – he wrote me back. I felt mighty and powerful like the proud Medillian that I am. He thanked me for my email and wrote, “Somewhere, I have a photo of us with my mother and your father at our graduation.” I was so touched that he wrote me back. I could tell immediately that he is an authentic and genuinely nice person. We have exchanged a few emails since but have never been in the same city at the same time to meet in person. However, I would love to meet him again and tell him in person how special I think his book is, and how brave he is as a writer. His quest to uncover the truth about his father’s death is so tragic but at the same time I imagine so liberating because Michael went to school to be a journalist. He used the skills that he was taught to solve a mystery that so many people tried to cover up. The book ends in San Francisco in an apartment building near Polk Street. After I finished the book, I got in my car and drove over to that building because I had to see it. I wanted more. I didn’t want the book to end. I hope one day Michael will write another book. I’m sure it will captivate readers as much as After Visiting Friends. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.