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What are readers saying about The Mistress's Daughter: A Memoir?
| Reviews of The Mistress's Daughter: A Memoir - Page 1 of 1 | «1»
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-04-01 01:31:12.
(Language: English)
  
Funny and sad and spare.
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A Reader posted a review at 2011-06-15 12:25:30.
(Language: English)
Excellent book! This girl definitely had a very bizarre birth mother.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-01-10 12:27:53.
(Language: English)
Will read more from this author! :)
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-07-17 11:33:26.
(Language: English)
Autobiographical tale of author A.M. Homes. This is the story of the author making tenuous connections to her birth parents when she is in her thirties. Not surprisingly, they turn out to be self-absorbed and prepared to accept her into their lives only on their terms. A very intimate and honest look into what it might be like to live in the emotional landscape of an adoptee. The search for meaning in the faces, the stories and the DNA of the people we call family is examined by a woman with a complex, unwavering intelligence.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-28 10:33:37.
(Language: English)
what can I say? LOVED it.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-12-05 07:47:39.
(Language: English)
I absolutely love Homes; and that was the only reason for me to pick this up. Good read, but, in retrospect, do I care about knowing any "real facts" about my favourite author(s)?
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-09-07 11:13:02.
(Language: English)
Enjoyable.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-02-23 02:42:53.
(Language: English)
Not nearly as good as her fiction.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-06-06 08:41:17.
(Language: English)
Amazing - hard to believe it's true.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-11-09 03:59:25.
(Language: English)
Honest! Reading it as a writer, I gratefully learn from the lesson that honesty is an essential ingredient to connect with an audience. She allows her uncensored feeling son the page and letting the reader see how they change and evolve. Superb storytelling, candidly revealing a troubling past with humor and insight. Homes' honesty and transparency is moving. I enjoyed (and learned) her ability to present the past in a vivid and dynamic present tense. She communicates her growinng understanding of her emotions and insecurities by being willing to open her heart and pour it on the page.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-08-13 04:03:26.
(Language: English)
Dissapointing. I felt Homes left out a lot of emotion here. Also found the book fractured and confusing towards end. She should have left out the genealogical search and grammas table stuff. It seemed odd and misplaced. I closed the book feeling incomplete – like the author held back something, did not tell the entire story, or maybe was a bit numbed in writing it. It felt less emotional or direct than I would expect it to be. Sure, there were some very emotional passages that at times made me choke up but overall I did not find it deeply stirring or emotional. It felt like she was being very cautious in her words. Trying to not be to negative, too emotional, to be pro or anti adoption. There maybe reasons for this (if it’s true) but as such it lacked something for me. I read one review on iRead that stated that natural parents were “the typical self absorbed types and made it all about themâ€. That kind of stung me. I would guess that reviewer was maybe an adoptee or someone with no real knowledge of the trauma experienced by mothers and fathers who lose their children. I agree that the author’s mother had issues with boundaries but I also understand the mothers deep need to reconnect with her child and to be pushed so far away and held at a distance. It is not easy. If you are not educated on reunion, adoptee psychology, etc. you could very easily screw the entire thing up with your own needs. As mothers who had everything taken away from us - many times against our will with incorrect or no information on the damage done by adoption, its often hard to balance the overwhelming primal desire to have our children with the reality that by the time we find them they are not what we fantasize about. Even harder to realize they want nothing to do with you when you want everything to do with them. It can be a rude wake up call. Some handle it better than others. I was pleased that the author developed some compassion for her mother after her death. I hope somehow, in the afterlife, mother was able to feel and see that.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-07-07 06:36:12.
(Language: English)
riveting memoir about the life of an adult adoptee who meets the individuals who brought her into this world and why they had to give her up
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-07-29 11:22:13.
(Language: English)
Okay book. Can read it if you are interested in the inner feeling of adopted children. Really see the need of God's inner healing in the world.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-05-14 03:06:23.
(Language: English)
A.M. Homes has a chip on her shoulder the size of the Empire State Building. Sure we are all interested in where we come from, and if you're adopted it's harder to find that out. But she writes as if being adopted is such an incredible hardship; you are forced to adapt to so many circumstances. The book makes clear that she is an incredibly bitter, self-centered person. (Given, her biological father deserves her treatment of him) Even after she becomes obsessed with her own biological and adoptive geneology, it's just a paper trail for her. She never seems interested in the actual people to whom she's connected, but instead in constructing a family tree to which her own personal connection remains abstract.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-04-26 04:57:47.
(Language: English)
Fascinating personal journey of an adopted child rediscovered by her birth parents - honest and moving.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-04-04 11:43:44.
(Language: English)
A mind boggling read!
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-10 09:34:55.
(Language: English)
This started off okay...a seemingly normal woman adopted as a baby is discovered by a her biological parents. Admittedly they are a bit odd as is their love affair but I'm afraid it's all downhill from there. I'm not sure why the author thinks that us readers would be interested in discovering her family tree. She lost me from there and I was quite disappointed in the rest of the novel.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-09-05 05:46:28.
(Language: English)
It is difficult to summarize this book without resorting to any number of hackneyed expressions, like raw emotions, devastating honesty, deeply engrossing, beautiful writing, and compelling reading. Because ‘The Mistresses’ Daughter’ is all of this and so much more. While Homes’ acknowledges that many of fictive works contain autobiographical elements, ‘The Mistress’s Daughter’ is perhaps the first publication she would consider to be true autobiography. Since early childhood, Homes had been made aware of her status as her parents’ adopted daughter. However it is not until adulthood that she first receives news of her biological mother wishing to make contact with her. Homes relays her memories of the initial discussions she has with her biological mother and the deeply strained relationships that develop between them and equally so with her biological father. During the course of events that take place, Homes must not only come to terms with the immensely flawed characters who are her biological parents, but also with her mother’s sudden passing and her father’s inability to fully acknowledge her existence. I can only imagine what must have been an agonising process for Homes to go though in producing something so deeply personal after decades as a writer of fiction. She deserves no end of accolades for her courage in bringing her story to the reading public.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-08 05:05:29.
(Language: English)
I thought it was ok.
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