Chapter 1, The Replacements Summary and Analysis

The opening chapter of the book talks about lesser male figures in the life of Donald Miller. He sees his first impression of a successful father on television, in Bill Cosby. He admires the show for its lack of serious problems and for Cosby's ability to laugh at himself.

Though Miller admits to having a great mother who tried hard, even volunteered as a Boy Scout dad, he points out that none of her efforts fully made up for his lack of a father. In one instance, his Pine Wood Derby car fails to make it in the Boy Scouts Derby, largely because none of the boy's fathers bother to show Miller what he should do. His mother drops him off with the other boy scouts to make cars out of small blocks of wood with their...