Hilly meets Savannah's father Charles Ewing, a baseball player cut from the Milwaukee Braves due to race.

Now working as a "race relations" reporter for a Boston newspaper, Hilly travels to Iowa for a story about Ewing, which he thinks may have to do with Savannah.

The New York Times writer Janet Maslin called the novel's title, setting, and central romance "whoppingly bland," but then added, "It becomes a bigger, more surprising book that it initially seems to be.

[4] Kate Tuttle of The Boston Globe called it “genuinely moving.” [5] Cooke criticized the first-person narrative and the overuse of red herrings.

And New York Journal of Books called it "a powerful tale dealing with familial dysfunction and racial differences, touching the heart of raw human emotion with insight and depth.”.

[8] Nancy Carty Lepri said, "“Wise Men is a powerful tale dealing with familial dysfunction and racial differences, touching the heart of raw human emotion with insight and depth.”.