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speculativebecky 's review for:
Palimpsest: Documents From a Korean Adoption
by Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom
I'm so glad I read this one, and enthusiastically recommend this book to fans of graphic memoirs or anyone interested in learning more about adoption, especially international adoption.
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung is probably the only book focused on adoption I've read before this one, and I was struck by the parallels in how both women describe the fundamental importance of their "origin myth", as well as their common motivation to search for their birth family which intensified with having children of their own. Sjöblom also begins with her childhood as a trans-racial adoptee, and how her young pride in being Korean is buffeted by the racism she faced constantly growing up in Sweden.
Sjöblom's story is personal, but she threads together much research and other adoptee's stories, highlighting commonalities in many of their experiences that are often suppressed. She bemoans that most literature about adoption is created by parents, and that it obfuscate the family tragedy that often underlies stories of adoption, as well as the difficult psychological effect on the children.
Her search for her birth family is frustrated by conflicting or missing documentation, and lackluster responsiveness from the organizations that are meant to help. In the process she discovers a lot about illegally performed adoptions, how not all adoptees are properly given up, and how documents are changed intentionally to make kids seem "more adoptable". I learned so much from reading this book, but at the same time it's a touching personal narrative, I'm so grateful to Sjöblom for sharing.
Cw for suicide
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung is probably the only book focused on adoption I've read before this one, and I was struck by the parallels in how both women describe the fundamental importance of their "origin myth", as well as their common motivation to search for their birth family which intensified with having children of their own. Sjöblom also begins with her childhood as a trans-racial adoptee, and how her young pride in being Korean is buffeted by the racism she faced constantly growing up in Sweden.
Sjöblom's story is personal, but she threads together much research and other adoptee's stories, highlighting commonalities in many of their experiences that are often suppressed. She bemoans that most literature about adoption is created by parents, and that it obfuscate the family tragedy that often underlies stories of adoption, as well as the difficult psychological effect on the children.
Her search for her birth family is frustrated by conflicting or missing documentation, and lackluster responsiveness from the organizations that are meant to help. In the process she discovers a lot about illegally performed adoptions, how not all adoptees are properly given up, and how documents are changed intentionally to make kids seem "more adoptable". I learned so much from reading this book, but at the same time it's a touching personal narrative, I'm so grateful to Sjöblom for sharing.
Cw for suicide