A Review of Judy Bolton-Fasman’s Asylum

By Ellen Blum Barish

A curious girl who grows up around people who keep secrets is like a balloon filling with water. It’s only a matter of time until it bursts.

But secrets don’t stand a chance against a girl who can find the words. And Judy Bolton-Fasman is one of those girls.

With sophisticated sleuthing and tender prose, she investigates her secret-keeping parents in Asylum: A Memoir of Family Secrets, the book she wrote to “release the pull of a mystery that had taken up sprawl...