I am so glad I read "My Fathers' Daughter". It is real. By Chapter 6, various points in the book had emotions encountering me, causing pause, making me feel like bursting into a solid tearflow. Hannah Pool's writing is not super poetic, but she's blunt and witty and I could really feel her angst. So by "real" I mean she was frank, she was brutally honest, she was conflicted...
What's more is that I was often plummeted into thoughts that had me imagining it was Olly feeling and saying those things someday about finding his biological family and "returning home," which added an extra layer of evocation for me. I was relieved to learn that Pool seemingly had a very supportive adoptive family. It's not lost on me that even so, the fact didn't ameliorate all the pent up emotional issues about growing up away and apart from biological relatives, though it made the story more heartening and digestable in the eyes of a PAP.
What's more is that I was often plummeted into thoughts that had me imagining it was Olly feeling and saying those things someday about finding his biological family and "returning home," which added an extra layer of evocation for me. I was relieved to learn that Pool seemingly had a very supportive adoptive family. It's not lost on me that even so, the fact didn't ameliorate all the pent up emotional issues about growing up away and apart from biological relatives, though it made the story more heartening and digestable in the eyes of a PAP.
The short, interwoven theme about racism in England, noting that Pool mentioned blacks walk prouder in Africa, exacerbated an edge I was already feeling. I find that I am almost excruciatingly sensitive about race nowadays. This can be good, but I wonder if my sensitivity is over the top. Is this a phase I'm going through? And what of race? It's as if I never cease to find it weighing upon me and clinging to the insides of daily thoughts, I reach back to my own experiences, I consider the future of my son. I just desperately want the world to treat him with justice, fairness and equal opportunity. But, I understand that he may someday have experiences that I haven't also personally known. I've tossed around the idea of exploring the subject of race on my blog, I feel like I've got something to say on it, but it remains to be seen whether I find the strength to push aside the boulder that is fear of judgment being cast upon every phrase I might write on this subject, honesty and examination notwithstanding.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment