The Mistress's Daughter
by A. M. Homes
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Book Summary Information
Author: A. M. HomesEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-03-25
ISBN: 0143113313
Number of pages: 238
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Book Reviews of The Mistress's Daughter
Book Review: A family better left behind
Summary: 3 Stars
What happens when an adoptee goes in search of her biological parents only to find that they are needy, self-centered, egotistical, half crazy and totally uninterested in her welfare? That's the story A.M. Homes has to write, and I don't envy her.
For her entire life, the author says she has felt she was in a sort of "witness protection" program, only it wasn't she who was being protected. The secrecy surrounding her birth and adoption -- in fact, her very existence -- served only to mask the identities of those who gave her life. In adulthood, her continued anonymity protects the family of the married man whose extramarital affair resulted in a baby.
A disappointing conclusion to her search leads to a disappointing story. The first half of the book, about her halting and fraught reunion with each of her parents, is interesting enough. Even so, I failed to understand why she would continue to pursue them, given their total and obvious disinterest in her well-being. But then again, I'm not an adoptee, so I can't fully inhabit her emotional core. And, I couldn't understand why she would push away the only half-sibling who eventually shows an interest in her. Surely, those in her own generation might have welcomed her. Maybe she just became tired of her biological clan.
The second half of the book is forgettable. In it, she traces her own efforts to trace her ancestry. I haven't even wanted to track my own relatives, let alone become immersed in a search for hers. This is another instance in which I imagine the article (originally in The New Yorker) is better than the book.
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