“I first laid eyes on my father’s mis­tress in Women’s Coats at Bloomingdale’s.” So begins this grip­ping, can­did, yet dark­ly humor­ous mem­oir by an award-win­ning jour­nal­ist whose father kept a mis­tress for more than 15 years while still mar­ried to her moth­er. Told in a series of 14 linked sto­ries that read more like fic­tion, this com­pelling com­ing-of-age tale is less about the author’s wealthy tyran­ni­cal father and his tor­rid affair than his only daughter’s life­long quest to rise above her sub­ur­ban Jew­ish family’s dirty lit­tle secret and find true and last­ing love, a roman­tic odyssey made all the more com­pli­cat­ed when despite her own prin­ci­ples she even­tu­al­ly falls for a mar­ried man herself.