I was captivated and heartbroken by this memoir, and I’m extremely interested to read more from this new-to-me author. ⁣
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This text blends Sissay’s own recollections of his upbringing in foster care and group homes with artifacts from his file at length obtained from Social Services, laying bare the contrast between the life he experienced and the one that appears in the documentation. Told all his life that his mother didn’t want him, he learns that she was kept from reuniting with him, even as his “successful” foster care placement dissolved. The family who promised to love him forever, the only parents he’d ever known, unceremoniously returned him to Social Services, laying the blame on his actions to assuage their guilt. Following that trauma, Sissay struggles to survive through a series of increasingly dehumanizing group homes, being bounced from one to the next and constantly branded a negative influence.⁣
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Sissay’s story is not nuanced. He calls to account the ways that people and systems failed him, without extending undeserved understanding their way for the racism, neglect, and abuse he suffers. The story seems to leave off just as it’s starting, and I admire Sissay’s commitment to telling this short, painfully unresolved, yet powerful story. A skilled poet, his way with words shines through in the pieces of poetry with which he begins each chapter, and in the intentional approach to words throughout. ⁣
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This book devastated me, and the craftsmanship is exceptional.Nonfiction friends, it’s one not to miss!