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Chargement... Ithaka: A Daughter's Memoir of Being Foundpar Sarah Saffian
   Aucun Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre.  alanna1122 | Aug 19, 2010 |    ) jessieep | Jul 25, 2006 | aucune critique | ajouter une critique
”Hello, is Sarah Saffian there?” asks the voice on the other end of the line. ”My name is Hannah Morgan. I think I’m your birth mother.” So begins this powerful memoir by a young woman whose life changes dramatically when she receives a phone call from someone at once a stranger and her most intimate relation. Saffian’s riveting story of painful self-discovery and newfound joy is unique in its reversal of the usual adoption narrative: here, the biological parents seek out the adoptee. Weaving together letters, journal entries, memories and relections, Saffian tells of her adoption, her adoptive mother’s death six years later, and her upbringing in a loving family. She learns that her biological parents ended up marrying and having other children. She is thus faced with an entire family to whom she is genetically linked. Saffian’s boldly honest account reaches a moving climax with their reunion, three years after the first phone call. Along the way, it raises thorny questions: What is a family? Can we have more than one? What is the line between parental concern and intrusion? Is it hypocritical to be a pro-choice adoptee? How do nature and nurture work together to form a person’s identity? By turns earnest and playful, Ithica: A Daughter’s Memoir of Being Found is sure to touch readers everywhere who have grappled with who they are.Sarah Saffian is a former reporter for the New York Daily News and has also written for the Village Voice, Interview, Harper’s Bazaar, and Mirabella. She holds a B.A. from Brown University and an M.F.A. from Columbia University, and lives in her native New York City. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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 Google Books — Chargement...GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)362.8298092Social sciences Social problems and services; associations Social problems of & services to groups of people Problems of and services to other groups Families Specific problemsClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne: (3.61)
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It makes me a little uncomfortable to say anything unflattering - especially about someone who went through a life experience that I haven't come close to experiencing.
That all being said. Here goes - my reaction to this book.
I read about this book more than 10 years ago. I actually think I might have caught the author promoting it on a talk show. It was so long ago - that besides having it on my to-read all those years - I couldn't remember more than what the title revealed. That it was a memoir about a woman who was "found" by her birth parents.
On the whole I found her story to be really interesting. I was curious what would happen next and wanted to know how things worked out for everyone in her family.
What I didn't like was the relentless introspection by the author. I can't understand how she could draw out the events the way she did if there wasn't some element of her wanting to punish her birth parents by doing so. I felt like it was dishonest with her literally musing over every way that this reunion was negatively impacting her life - her consideration for what her actions were doing to other people was so slight it distracted me throughout the reading.
I think since I am a mother myself - I can understand the overwhelming desire of her birth parents to see her and reunite and the undiminished love they felt for her. Her constant questioning of them on this point was tiresome to me. I have to wonder if she is now a mother - in the light of having her own children - if it makes her more sympathetic to them in retrospect.
I also at points wondered (probably uncharitably) if the author, who was already working in publishing/journalism when these events began to unfold might have manipulated their slow progression via correspondence because she could see that it had the makings of a book. I know its not nice to wonder such things.. but she is smart - and it really does seem a stroke of luck to have all that documentation in her lap.
Okay. Enough of that. Its a good book. The people resonate for better or for worse. I think if you have an interest in the subject matter - its worth a read. (