false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168029724m/29412.jpg 29412 7 Before A.M. Homes was born, she was put up for adoption. Her birth mother was a twenty-two- year-old single woman who was having an affair with a much older married man with children of his own. <I>The Mistress's Daughter</I> is the story of what happened when, thirty years later, her birth parents came looking for her. Homes, renowned for the psychological accuracy and emotional intensity of her storytelling, tells how her birth parents initially made contact with her and what happened afterward (her mother stalked her and appeared unannounced at a reading) and what she was able to reconstruct about the story of their lives and their families. Her birth mother, a complex and lonely woman, never married or had another child, and died of kidney failure in 1998; her birth father, who initially made overtures about inviting her into his family, never did. Then the story jumps forward several years to when Homes opens the boxes of her mother's memorabilia. She had hoped to find her mother in those boxes, to know her secrets, but no relief came. She became increasingly obsessed with finding out as much as she could about all four parents and their families, hiring researchers and spending hours poring through newspaper morgues, municipal archives and genealogical Web sites. This brave, daring, and funny book is a story about what it means to be adopted, but it is also about identity and how all of us define our sense of self and family. 2169179 5 4 2007 The Mistress's Daughter total:1102|5:87|4:289|3:473|2:199|1:54| 1102 3462 1606 276 3 16 false false Sat Oct 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 03 16:34:06 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 11:39:08 -0700 2009 one fleeting moment when you thought ‘I wonder if I’m adopted?’ Maybe some of you have had more than one of these ruminations, or maybe some of you have been adopted and wonder what your biological parents could do for you that your adopted ones have failed to orâ...more...]]> 2 2 false false Tue Dec 02 22:26:22 -0800 2008 Thu Sep 25 20:45:44 -0700 2008 Tue Dec 02 22:26:22 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Aug 02 10:06:34 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 02 10:10:44 -0700 2007
Here is my interview with A.M. Homes for the...more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Mar 27 07:45:24 -0700 2007 Tue Mar 27 08:12:39 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Jan 26 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Aug 14 11:28:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jan 26 17:01:10 -0800 2009 only once I don't know that I would recommend this to anyone if they simply wanted a good book or a good non-fiction book. If someone ...more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue May 22 08:23:31 -0700 2007 Tue May 22 08:29:44 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 true false Fri Feb 01 10:29:00 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 01 10:50:34 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Sep 09 14:50:31 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 09 14:55:38 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Mar 29 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Mar 27 11:30:45 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 01 16:56:07 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 1 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 30 18:19:57 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 30 18:25:50 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 13 18:09:37 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 13 18:10:10 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 02 18:54:33 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 15 22:10:39 -0700 2007
AM Homes wrote the collection of stories called The Safety of Objects that was made into a fantastic movie starring Gle...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Oct 08 22:14:05 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 08 22:43:10 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false true Sat Jan 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 02 07:30:48 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 03 16:52:03 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Feb 24 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 22 06:25:38 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 07:53:36 -0800 2009 A.M. Homes' stuff.
She certainly does know how to set a mood.
The opening is thus: the author is told, at age 31, that her birth mother wishes to contact her.
Her memoir of reuniting with her birth parents is an emotional roller coaster ride. As with all h...more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:44:48 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:44:48 -0800 2009 Critics agree that the first part of A. M. Homes's book, an expanded version of a 2004 New Yorker essay, is a riveting family story. Told in the same taut prose that gives her fiction (In a Country of Mothers, 1993; Music for Torching, 1999) its "stylish nihilism" (New York Times), The Mis...

more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Mar 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 26 10:13:40 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 10 08:02:28 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed Sep 30 12:40:05 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 30 12:40:05 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jan 06 16:54:40 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 06 16:55:18 -0800 2009
This is a true story about the author, who is adopted, finding out about her birth family.

Publisher’s Note:
initially made overtures about inviting...more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Apr 13 19:48:05 -0700 2007 Fri Apr 13 19:48:12 -0700 2007 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=29412