Just read this book by Emily Prager. I enjoyed it for the most part. It was kind of boring in some places where nothing seems to happen, but I liked the overall "message" I guess. I thought it was an interesting trip through a perspective of an adoptive parent. The only thing that made me go "WTF" was when Prager's daughter asks about her birth parents, Prager says that if she looks in the mirror she will see them, that they're in your legs, in your body. Wtf? If all adoptees were comforted by that logic do you think the majority would still go back to their place of birth in search for their parents? I don't really hold it against her though. I have no idea what I'd say if I were an adoptive parent. That bit didn't stop me from enjoying the book though.
Then again, scathing Amazon reviews do confirm that I know nothing about China nor travel writing.
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It's a real contrast between her (Emily Prager) and the memoir you mentioned in the last post of yours. Trenka said: 'I'm 32 years old and I feel like a preschooler in my birth country, illiterate, deaf and mute'. Or at least this is the summary.
ReplyDeleteIt would be great if the daughter could go back frequently; as a child, a teenager and an adult.
Prager wrote this book nearly a decade ago, and I did in fact find an article that Prager wrote recently; she said she now lives in Shanghai with her daughter! It must be a very unique experience for her daughter.
ReplyDeleteYes, there's the whole transracial adoption as a last resort thing, which I agree with...but somehow I never felt any kind of disapproval of Prager. I can't say she did the "right" thing, but I think she tried her best and had a sense of humility towards her situation, which may be the most important thing when there is no "right" thing. I dunno...