tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1133819134801574505.post8597760240986905352..comments2023-10-06T06:16:18.099-04:00Comments on The Sought-After: From the other Side of the UterusAndreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03887189203551681403noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1133819134801574505.post-57816220761606369302010-03-16T20:51:22.130-04:002010-03-16T20:51:22.130-04:00Michelle: Thanks for stopping by! I checked out yo...Michelle: Thanks for stopping by! I checked out your blog and am very interested to hear your perspective as an adoptee and an adoptive mother. Could we chat via email?<br /><br />Daisy: Once again, your intelligence and keen insight shine in this lowly comment space. I very much appreciate your presence on my blog and feel honored that you visit! Have you read any of Mary Karr's work? I'm a big fan. <br />Also, I am planning to go to the adoption conference at MIT in April/May, and I'd love to meet up with you. Can we chat about how to do that?Andreahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03887189203551681403noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1133819134801574505.post-40085900784418423792010-03-09T22:07:00.084-05:002010-03-09T22:07:00.084-05:00I'm glad you found it worth reading. I agree w...I'm glad you found it worth reading. I agree with you, much of her prose is exquisite. It was the first of the adoption memoirs I've read that I thought moved beyond a sort of journalistic approach to autobiography. <br /><br />I ran across a review of Mary Karr's most recent memoir in the NYT and highlighted the following passage: <br /><br />'“Lit,” in contrast, deals with a less anomalous story — that is, a story of addiction and recovery, by now familiar in outline from the many A.A.-like autobiographies produced during the memoir craze of the late ’90s. Whereas many of these lesser efforts were propelled by the belief that confession is therapeutic and therapy is redemptive and redemption somehow equals art, Ms. Karr’s own work demonstrates that candor and self-revelation only become literature when they are delivered with hard-earned craft, that the exposed life is not the same as the examined one.'<br /><br />As a whole book it's flawed, I think - some later chapters seem awkward and tacked on. But I don't believe that that diminishes the power of the majority of the book. I felt her ability to describe the profound loneliness of her isolated and housebound pregnancy and later, her solitary wandering, was really incredible. <br /><br />I'm not sure why, precisely, but I've always felt a very strong identification with birthmothers from my own birthmother's era - I could always easily imagine myself in a similar spot - as the one left holding the bag, as it were. I don't know how typical this is? Certainly I could identify with the isolation and deep loneliness that so often accompanied their experience of being removed and hidden away. Actually, I've been wondering lately how tied together loneliness and shame seem to be - and how shameful admitting feeling lonely is in this culture. It seems to be an aspect of adoption not really discussed much (not as much as abandonment, grief, low self-esteem, etc.)lesliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13430655234625464479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1133819134801574505.post-16167022730546513172010-03-09T16:38:01.943-05:002010-03-09T16:38:01.943-05:00Thanks, I haven't heard of it but will look fo...Thanks, I haven't heard of it but will look for it. I completely understand the draw of getting "into the mind of a birth mother" the same age as your own.Michellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09180212836126704979noreply@blogger.com