What do You think about Like Family: Growing Up In Other People's Houses: A Memoir (2009)?
Dysfunction in families is common, but I am impressed with this author for having overcome being moved from one "situation" to another having little solidarity. Her great fortune was that she was able to stay together with her sisters. Foster homes are a sad, but necessary, alternative to orphanages which is where I expect these girls would have grown up with such careless parents. Children have no control of their parents, but as adults they choose to rise above or be mowed over by childhood circumstances. She chose to rise above. Great job!
—Jane Carlsen
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12978310Paula and her two younger sisters were abandoned by both parents in 1965. They were placed in a series of foster homes, ending in one that lasted several years. Throughout that time Paula hoped that her mother would be able to take them back, but mostly she rode with the time. She adapted to the situation. The memoir is vivid and does not ask for sympathy. It is simply a recording of what it was like. Naturally, it wasn't all fun and games. At times it was anything but. I couldn't help but wonder if there ever was an attempt to find adoptive parents, or if the agencies simply hoped that the biological parents would be able to take over at some point. I wonder this because it seems it might have been a better way to go and may have been truly in the best interest of these children. As it was, they grew up "in the system" and survived, possibly as well as can be expected, maybe even better than most. Not much navel-gazing here. Worth reading.
—Judith
"For 14 years, Paula McLain endured a chaotic life of impermanence..." (book jacket)"...nearly 15 years of shuttling between foster homes like a water bug between floating leaves and garbage." (p. 229) But what's the first part of that sentence? "I was 19 years old when I left the Lindberghs, ending nearly 11 years with them."How is 11 years with one foster family, through to age 19, "a chaotic life of impermanence" or "15 years of shuttling"?Not quite what it's made out to be at all. Paula and her 2 sisters were kept together through their years in the foster system. They continued to see their grandmother and cousins (less so in their teen years--though she blames the 3 girls themselves. They made good school friends they continued to see after aging out. A foster sister she did see after the Lindberghs died (did that relationship continue? She doesn't say.)Yes, their was abuse and neglect and confusion and rebellion. I did not find it to be a whole lot different than many teens experience in their blood families. I think this book actually portrays the Fresno County foster system in a good light.
—Dree
