Inheritance: A memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro
- 01/30/2019 05:24 PM (update 04/10/2023 11:09 PM)
You might want to think twice before you spit in the tube and send your saliva off to have your DNA tested because you think you might want to know your roots. You could be in for the surprise of your life.
On a whim and in her 50s, Dani Shapiro spits and learns the man she thought was her beloved father had, in fact, no biological link to her at all. And so begins her quest to learn the circumstances of her conception, why her now deceased parents kept this secret from her, who her biological father is and the multitude of questions and emotions that go along with discovering where she came from and who she is.
Along the way the reader gets a look at the infertility medical practices in the 1950s and early 1960s. And her biological fathers shock when he learns of her existence and how this knowledge impacts his family. The reader is with Dani Shapiro through every breakthrough, setback, mystery uncovered as a new one appears, and the emotional rollercoaster ride she finds herself on. She comes across a bit whiny at times and periodically I’d just wish she’d suck it up and get on with things. And then she’d write something is such a way that I just wanted to give her a hug and tell her it was going to all be okay.
This profound book allows for thoughtfulness about family, heritage, and especially parenting.
—Carol Lloyd
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