Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Houses
by Paula McLain
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This powerful and haunting memoir details the years Paula McLain and her two sisters spent as foster children after being abandoned by both parents in California in the early 1970s. As wards of the State, the sisters spent the next fourteen years moving from foster home to foster home. The dislocations, confusions, and odd pleasures of an unrooted life form the basis of one of the most compelling memoirs in recent years-a book in the tradition of Jo Ann Beard's The Boys of My Youth and Mary show more Karr's The Liars' Club. McLain's beautiful writing and limber voice capture the intense loneliness, sadness, and determination of a young girl both on her own and responsible, with her siblings, for staying together as a family. show lessTags
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BookshelfMonstrosity Like Family is a memoir that traces the difficulties of being a foster child in California. Like The Language of Flowers, it provides readers with a moving account of young girls who triumph over adversity to find happiness as adults.
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http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12978310
Paula 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 show more 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. show less
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12978310
Paula 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 show more 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. show less
Very touching book. It's sad the lives that some children lead. Good example as well of how parents really can only do what they know how to do. They can only be as good a parent as they know how to be. Sadly this book is universal, not just for foster children. Excellent writing. I felt as though I'd been there, been with Paula and her sisters.
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Author Information
14+ Works 11,800 Members
Paula McLain was born in Fresno, California in 1965. After being abandoned by both parents, she and her two sisters became wards of the California Court System and moved in and out of foster homes for the next 14 years. She received a MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan in 1996. She is the author of two collections of poetry entitled show more Less of Her and Stumble, Gorgeous and a memoir entitled Like Family: Growing up in Other People's Houses. She has also written several novels including A Ticket to Ride, The Paris Wife, and Circling the Sun. She has published individual poems and essays in numerous journals including the Gettysburg Review, Antioch Review, and The New York Times Sunday Magazine. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Houses
Classifications
- Genres
- Biography & Memoir, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, Travel
- DDC/MDS
- 362.73 — Society, government, & culture Social problems and social services Social Welfare Child welfare Adoption
- LCC
- HV883 .C2 .M35 — Social sciences Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Protection, assistance and relief Special classes Children Destitute, neglected, and abandoned
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 163
- Popularity
- 200,757
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.40)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 2
