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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
3.5 stars*
This was a really heartfelt story about a transracial adoption and the complications that comes with it as children grow up and get older. The narrator was great and it was super easy to listen to on audio. The conversation of adoption in general is one that's not really had and it was nice to hear a story like this one.
The book was mainly a recount of her story of trying to connect with her birth family as she was starting a family of her own. It was a really moving story, but to me personally it was just kind of...flat. It didn't go above and beyond her retelling events, which I was kind of hoping it would.
This was a really heartfelt story about a transracial adoption and the complications that comes with it as children grow up and get older. The narrator was great and it was super easy to listen to on audio. The conversation of adoption in general is one that's not really had and it was nice to hear a story like this one.
The book was mainly a recount of her story of trying to connect with her birth family as she was starting a family of her own. It was a really moving story, but to me personally it was just kind of...flat. It didn't go above and beyond her retelling events, which I was kind of hoping it would.
"I wanted to know whoever I was, I was." (Mary Oliver, Dogfish)
"Hadn't I already wondered if I might be wrong taking up space where I did not have a right to? The self-consciousness I'd felt but hardly known how to track....."
"I'd been raised to believe in miracles...I had always been told that my birth parents wished they could keep me. If that were true, why didn't God care what they had wanted? Today, I can understand why the idea of a providential adoption appealed to my parents. I've heard such sentiments echoed by adoptive parents over the years. Declarations like, 'we were meant to be and we were made for each other.'......Who can question the rightness of a blessing sent from God? If adopting a certain child is fated, ordained, it is easier to gloss over real loss and inequity, to justify the separation of a parent and a child."
"I know my place in my adoptive family is secure. That is not the same thing as always feeling that I belong."
"Hadn't I already wondered if I might be wrong taking up space where I did not have a right to? The self-consciousness I'd felt but hardly known how to track....."
"I'd been raised to believe in miracles...I had always been told that my birth parents wished they could keep me. If that were true, why didn't God care what they had wanted? Today, I can understand why the idea of a providential adoption appealed to my parents. I've heard such sentiments echoed by adoptive parents over the years. Declarations like, 'we were meant to be and we were made for each other.'......Who can question the rightness of a blessing sent from God? If adopting a certain child is fated, ordained, it is easier to gloss over real loss and inequity, to justify the separation of a parent and a child."
"I know my place in my adoptive family is secure. That is not the same thing as always feeling that I belong."
Memoirs are always hard to rate and review. This was an important look at an adoptees experience, especially when the adoption was transracial. The problem was much of this book was a filler and repetitive. It could have been half the size.
Nicole Chung tells her story of growing up as a Korean adoptee to white parents, and then connecting with her birth parents.
As written, it was fine but not remarkable. It’s a short book and was padded with only marginally relevant stories (about becoming a new mother).
I feel like the theme could have been more focused. What makes a family? How much of you is your genetic make up? How at home can you feel at home in a family you weren’t born into? How much more difficult is it if your race doesn’t match your family? How do you reconcile your expectations with reality when your parents let you down? The book didn’t take any actual position, nor did it make the confusion of it all the lesson to take away.
The story was written fine, but not remarkably. It was ok. It wasn’t a waste of time, but I wasn’t enthralled either. This would be a good book to read if you are in a similar position to Nicole, but otherwise I wouldn’t say it’s a must-read.
As written, it was fine but not remarkable. It’s a short book and was padded with only marginally relevant stories (about becoming a new mother).
I feel like the theme could have been more focused. What makes a family? How much of you is your genetic make up? How at home can you feel at home in a family you weren’t born into? How much more difficult is it if your race doesn’t match your family? How do you reconcile your expectations with reality when your parents let you down? The book didn’t take any actual position, nor did it make the confusion of it all the lesson to take away.
The story was written fine, but not remarkably. It was ok. It wasn’t a waste of time, but I wasn’t enthralled either. This would be a good book to read if you are in a similar position to Nicole, but otherwise I wouldn’t say it’s a must-read.
An interesting story that gives an insider's perspective of transracial adoption (and adoption in general). Something is stopping me from giving a higher rating. Maybe it seemed too earnest?
Beautiful and insightful. It’s a wonderful gift not just for her family but for anyone who has felt any self doubt, faced uncertainty about their own world or family. This story gave me so much...comfort, courage and motivation to face, search and explore my self.
5/5 again! Literally writing this review in Asian Am. Lit as we are discussing it :0 I love how accessible this memoir is and it's actually SO affirming for my classmates to relate, empathize, and build a collective outrage toward the immense loss, unacknowledged grief, and the racial and cultural identity confusion that is produced by transracial adoption.
P.S. @Morgan uu better like this since I showed this to u in class and we sit to next to each other we got lunch and voted together. I know where you live (kind of)
P.S. @Morgan uu better like this since I showed this to u in class and we sit to next to each other we got lunch and voted together. I know where you live (kind of)
LOVED it. Couldn't put it down. So heartfelt and raw.
As a Korean American adoptee myself, there was a lot I could relate to.
4.5
Had I not been busy, I would’ve finished it in two days because I couldn’t put it down. I knew I would enjoy it, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn it was a story I didn’t know I needed.
Had I not been busy, I would’ve finished it in two days because I couldn’t put it down. I knew I would enjoy it, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn it was a story I didn’t know I needed.