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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
An extremely readable account of an adoptee reunion that wasn’t what I expected. I read quickly to see what would happen next, and was so happy for Cindy and Nikki to have found each other.
I loved this. One thing I really appreciated was her reflection on feelings she had felt growing up and how they were influenced by what she thought was expected of her as an adoptee, esp. by her (adoptive) parents.
I am a teeny bit annoyed that the rather generic title is never revealed to have any meaning (unless I missed it). It seems like a big missed opportunity.
I am a teeny bit annoyed that the rather generic title is never revealed to have any meaning (unless I missed it). It seems like a big missed opportunity.
I always enjoy reading an interesting memoir. Nicole Chung was born premature and adopted as an infant. She grew up in a very white community with little or no exposure to other Koreans until she left for college. She was aware of the fact she was adopted at a very young age. It wasn’t until adulthood she began the search for her birth parents. While the discovery of her birth parents filled in some of the lingering questions Nicole had, it also left her with many more questions.
Honestly, I wanted to really love this book. It’s a great story, and an important overarching narrative that needs to be told about the realities of international adoptions and the closed adoptions of BIPOC children into white families. But Nicole Chung needed better editors for her story overall.
Chung starts with great promise and begins to interweave her birth sister’s story into her own as well. But by 40% of the way through the book, you can see Chung repeating herself over and over again, telling the same story or reciting the same fear in nearly the same way as she did 15 pages back. The timeline jumps around a lot and it’s difficult to tell whether you’re talking to 15-year-old Nicole or present-day Nicole or newly married Nicole or 6-year-old Nicole. Even odder is the sparse other narrative that is haphazardly interwoven into the rest of the story; you don’t know when it’s coming, and it doesn’t arrive with any regularity.
I wanted to keep going because, again, I think the story is one that needs to be told and people need to be educated about the adoption process, especially the complications that belie interracial adoption (or, more specifically, white people adopting children of any other race or ethnicity), but by the third time Chung expresses her fear of how she could tell her husband or adoptive parents that she wanted to search for her birth parents in the same 20 pages in the same exact way, I knew I couldn’t get through the rest.
Chung starts with great promise and begins to interweave her birth sister’s story into her own as well. But by 40% of the way through the book, you can see Chung repeating herself over and over again, telling the same story or reciting the same fear in nearly the same way as she did 15 pages back. The timeline jumps around a lot and it’s difficult to tell whether you’re talking to 15-year-old Nicole or present-day Nicole or newly married Nicole or 6-year-old Nicole. Even odder is the sparse other narrative that is haphazardly interwoven into the rest of the story; you don’t know when it’s coming, and it doesn’t arrive with any regularity.
I wanted to keep going because, again, I think the story is one that needs to be told and people need to be educated about the adoption process, especially the complications that belie interracial adoption (or, more specifically, white people adopting children of any other race or ethnicity), but by the third time Chung expresses her fear of how she could tell her husband or adoptive parents that she wanted to search for her birth parents in the same 20 pages in the same exact way, I knew I couldn’t get through the rest.
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
****1/2
I’ve seen adoption stories from the parents’ POV and their journey to bring their child home, but what do their lives look like after that? What happens when the child grows up?
It only took a few pages into ALL YOU CAN EVER KNOW to see Nicole Chung’s eloquence when writing about her experience as a transracial adoptee. Born prematurely to Korean parents, Chung’s experiences growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood and raised by white parents make her more aware of her difference. This moving, introspective debut skillfully paints the complex issues that go beyond love of family, making profound statements about race, identity, family, and belonging.
I’ve seen adoption stories from the parents’ POV and their journey to bring their child home, but what do their lives look like after that? What happens when the child grows up?
It only took a few pages into ALL YOU CAN EVER KNOW to see Nicole Chung’s eloquence when writing about her experience as a transracial adoptee. Born prematurely to Korean parents, Chung’s experiences growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood and raised by white parents make her more aware of her difference. This moving, introspective debut skillfully paints the complex issues that go beyond love of family, making profound statements about race, identity, family, and belonging.
6/10
I hadn't heard of this book until it was recommended to me by @gettbr as one of my quarterly recommendations. I listened to it on audiobook and while I thought the woman's story of her transracial adoption was very intriguing I just didn't think there was enough story here for an entire book. Part of the book covered her childhood full of microagressions and feeling displaced among her white family as a Korean and this was probably the more impactful part of the book. The rest of the story of her pregnancy, giving birth and meeting her birth sister and interacting with her birth family dragged on quite a bit.
I hadn't heard of this book until it was recommended to me by @gettbr as one of my quarterly recommendations. I listened to it on audiobook and while I thought the woman's story of her transracial adoption was very intriguing I just didn't think there was enough story here for an entire book. Part of the book covered her childhood full of microagressions and feeling displaced among her white family as a Korean and this was probably the more impactful part of the book. The rest of the story of her pregnancy, giving birth and meeting her birth sister and interacting with her birth family dragged on quite a bit.
Maybe it's because I approached this book more with the intention to study (as an adoptive mom), but I found it very repetitive. There were nuggets of knowledge but I found her written voice much more difficult to connect to compared to her in-person interviews I've seen with the media buzz around the bookI didn't like this one but many others did.
A wonderful story about resilience, family, and transracial adoption, specifically as a Korean adopted into a white family. You can tell the author poured her heart and soul into this; so grateful that she chose to share her experience with the world. One thing I'm wondering is what was here last name before it was "Chung" since it is revealed in the book that that's her birth father's family name, and more importantly her decision to change it and the thought that went through in that process. I understand that memoirs are deeply personal and the author can choose what to share and what to withhold; her last name just seemed like the elephant in the room to me that I wanted to hear more about.