Overview

Adoption Memoirs tells inside stories of adoption that popular media miss. Marianne Novy shows how adoption memoirs and films recount not only happy moments, but also the lasting pain of relinquishing a child, the racism and trauma that adoptees such as Jackie Kay and Jane Jeong Trenka experienced, and the unexpected complexities of child-rearing adoptive parents Emily Prager and Jesse Green encountered. Novy considers 45 memoirs, mostly from the twenty-first century, by birthmothers, adoptees, and adoptive parents, about same-race and transracial adoption. These adoptees, she recounts, wanted to learn about their ancestry and appreciated adoptive parents who helped. Birthmother Amy Seek shows why open adoption is not simple, and many other memoirs tell stories that continue past reunion. Adoption Memoirs will enlighten readers who lack experience with adoption and help those looking for a shared experience to also understand adoption from a different standpoint.

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9781439925898

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Reviews

“Marianne Novy has given us a rich and powerful exploration of the deep and wide river that is adoption, separating and joining families. Her book is of value to all of us touched by adoption, and truly in some way we are all touched by adoption.”—Barbara Katz Rothman, Professor of Sociology at the City University of New York ""Novy’s voice rings out in the text through her passion for the subject and her own history…. [She] gives readers a full view of adoption — and leaves any judgment up to them…. Adoption Memoirs lays bare how America’s political infrastructure fails all families…. This book is an important work that treads new ground. It shows that 'happy endings' are something for fiction.""—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “The word adoption has a multitude of meanings and innuendos. For many years it was seen as a fix to a problem or a way for altruistic individuals or couples to form a family. But adoption adds layer upon layer of loss for all parties, as well as trauma for the adoptee. Marianne Novy’s Adoption Memoirs is an insightful glimpse into the many realities and narratives of adoption. Do not argue with any of these stories if they are not yours. Listen. Listen. Learn.”—Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao, Pavao Consulting and Coaching, and Lecturer in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School ""Marianne Novy has done a masterful job of pulling on the threads of many memoirs and weaving them into a compelling narrative to make important points.""—Jana Wolff, author of Secret Thoughts of an Adoptive Mother ""Novy's book is a must read for anyone who researches, studies or writes about adoption.""—Lorraine Dusky, author of Hole In My Heart

Author Information

Marianne Novy is Professor Emerita of English and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. She is author of Reading Adoption: Family and Difference in Fiction and Drama and editor of Imagining Adoption: Essays on Literature and Culture.

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