4 comments about Explication : One Adoptee's Experience.

1. A social statement in social abuse married to a white collar crime; criminal greed and behavior finds ignorance in exploitation by greed ethics and this book reveals the conclusion in real life.
   Adoption or abortion the question of life or death for the unborn in a poverty uneducated circumstance.
   
   A Pregnancy resulting from looking for love by Life's throwaway abused child/girl/woman.(The seed donator was a Texan from the panhandle; a Pisces named Chris Swift, a married liar with three kids)
   
   The unmarried pregnant female with no social or family tools with which to survive wounded unwanted, existing through a life of abuse misuse exploitation and humiliation, a 10th grade education. Contacted a trusted (unknown to her) unethical attorney (exploiting) dating her beautiful damaged sister to arrange for a direct(not private) adoption.
   
   Trust in a professional who only saw this adoption as a way to make money under the table. Trusting is the 1st requirement in exploitation of adoption. The requirements for the future parents (designated from the Ozzie and Harriet TV parents). They both must have college degrees; both religious, a settled 30ish older childless couple whose unmet desire for a child spanned a long time. If the couple could not be found then forget the adoption. The pittance of cash she was able to borrow and live on was to be paid back; medical cost covered.
   The attorney was to insert into the adoption paperwork, medical contact information, if the baby should ever need a body part the girl was available. To tell the parents the child was loved but for her future health and welfare could not be kept.
   (the problem culminanted with the unethical attorney; a thief who sold the baby to the highest bidders; a young couple unable to pass regular adoption channels; the unbornchild/unwedmother were exploited for money).
   
   At 12:30 a.m.on the night of birth the laboring terrified christen girl(baptized 4X before turnig 10 years old) was dropped on the outside steps by a sister going out for another night of drinking instead of staying with her youngest sister at the dark forbidding catholic hospital. Her clicking heels underlined her abandonment, the tall safety haloed lights revealed the mist of baby rain drops tears from God.
   How ironic the rain, alone, the silence.
   
   The nurses/nuns led her to a curtained examining rooms, voicing disapproval of the unwed pregnancy. Led her to the high bed then walked off. Another laboring woman filled the air with screaming and yelling; the screaming singing mix in echoing voices with gleeful shouting of winning from a poker game. Two or three times someone stuck a shadowed head in and a you ok, the girl begged for the bathroom, the head dismissed her with a disrespectful shrug and tone use the bed pan.
   
   The pain was great and one of old familiarity a friend, she refused to scream accomplishing it by biting holes on the inside of her mouth, the salt taste diverted her attention a trick learned from her father's training sessions to retain silence. The pain teacher the lesson circling and riveted around her solo universe.
   
   No one ever told her anything; certainly not about labor, only that look wait until you find out, the huge scare. she could handle this too alone like everything else; by herself with no one to support or share it with except the unamed demanding entrance into the world.
   
   The girl used her hands, arms, and legs to intertwine in the antique bed railing her body hung slung sideway not on the bed at all now the pain eased dangling sideways from the railing the tiredness of clinging to the rail filtered awareness of the throbbing white hot pain enveloping her being.
   
   Dawn of light stabbed from beneath the heavy curtains, shift change, new nurse, new attitude, Aw honey untangling the twisted girl from the rail, explaining it's accepted that a bed was messed in and not a shameful act. Then checked the progress yelling Oh my god! this girl is having a baby after touching the crowning head.
   
   She was perfect in everyway, a full head of hair and delicate soft strong hands with long fingers. A quiet baby with large eyes. BEAUTIFUL. She was going to have a better life than the birthmother that was her two gifts life and a future.
   (unknowning of the transfer of large sums of money; the young non-degree parents using this baby to save a shakey marriage; the future blackmail to the young parents)
   
   The extended painful delivery created by ignorance of the girl accompanied by action judgment to a sinning unwed mother by the religious judgmental uncaring night staff.
   
   The unethical attorney flew from Tucson paid the bill; took the bundle with a nurse to fly to Boston where the two Professors at a university were waiting for their child.
   That was his story to the birthmother.
   
   The baby grew up and wrote this book mad at her birthmother, mad at the parents who paid for her, mad at the world for not having the life she wanted.
   
   Truth is relative. To parties involved.
   Everyone should know their birthright.
   That information was "SUPPOSEDLY" given with the baby's papers at transfer; but since it became a lucrative shaded adoption; a purchased adoption the attorney's closed it and removed any information to the birthmother.
   
   One can only hope writing Explication releases the author from the past. The future is bright and fertile and the past should be used for learning.
   
   Truth is create by ones view and is whatever one makes it.
   
   I think anyone thinking adoption and trusting the professional system should read this book.
   
   Very creative in Jennifer Bryan using her monetary judgement to purchase the internet tools to create her internet company and assist in the creation of an online publishing company to make her an author of this book.
   A podium to damm the people she judges have treated her badly.
   
   As one who never aborted; I always looked for the best solution in unforgiving circumstances as adoption.
   Life instead of death.
   
   My personal experience has changed that fundamental belief.



2. Adolesent ramblings of a disturbed young woman. With help all around the author wallows in self pity, and wants to Know why no one loves her for the ungrateful, shaved head, spiteful, pill popping,alcohol drinking, manipulative, promiscuous, runaway she admits she is. This poor woman needs therapy and I need my head examined for buying this book.



3. Adolescent ramblings of a 30 something woman. I can't imagine this book providing insight to anyone. One thing that is obvious, is that this woman needs to start taking responsibility for herself, and stop blaming her adoptive parents, her birth mother, the school, the Hospital, etc. It will probably take a chunk of therapy. This woman has issues! This in not your typical adoptee.



4. Not your basic Oprah-like happy reunion of adoptee and birth-family, this book details the very rocky and painful teen and young adult years of an adoptee as she searches for her identity and hopes to find it with her birthmother.

   Jen allows us to peek into the mind of a teen suffering genealogical bewilderment, a syndrome experienced by adoptees. In Explication, we share with Jen through her painful teen years, the joy and loss of her first love (a fellow adoptee), and the reunion with her birthmother and birthsisters.

   A compelling read, neither my daughter or I could put the book down. I highly recommend this book, whether you are an adoptee, a birthparent, or just looking for a good read.

1 comments about 47 Roses: A Story of Family Secrets and Enduring Love.

1. "44 Dublin Made Me", was the first book written Peter Sheridan. Mr. Sheridan is also a noted playwright, and director of such films as, "My Left Foot" and "The Boxer". When I commented on his first work I felt it settled itself between the sadness that often accompanies Irish Memoirs with the traditional healthy dose of humor. This second book, "47 Roses", is not devoid of humor, but the topic that is shared is almost incompatible with humor, and certainly overwhelms the few lighter moments that are described.

   The number in the title not only describes the flowers that play a role in the book, but much more significantly the number of years a woman from England remained devoted to a man she could never marry. It was not only that the author's father was married that kept them apart, but also, and to a lesser extent, differences that unfortunately remain so prominent between Ireland and England. Intolerance was much stronger in the first half on the 20th Century, so the idea of an English Protestant and an Irish Catholic as husband and wife was dicey, especially for an Irishman whose family history was prominent in the more extreme groups of Ireland. To balance the difficulties, the English side of the family included a former member of The Black And Tans, who will remain notorious for much of Ireland no matter how many years may pass.

   Anna was the wife in Ireland and Doris was the woman in England. Both of these women had a claim on the affections of this man Peter, and he clearly had feelings that ran very deep for both of them. For 30 years Doris was a part of the author's family, through visits and even watching the children when Anna and Peter vacationed. The ultimatum that finally separated Peter and Doris was to last 17 years until his death, and then it would continue with the son trying to piece together the mystery of this extremely unusual relationship that spanned the Irish Sea.

   The feelings of both women and their actions are at times hard to fathom. Why would Doris wait for a man for 47 years, going so far as to convert to Catholicism so as to not be separated after they left their life on this world? This same woman who would come to lay flowers at Peter's grave without having seen him for the better part of 2 decades, and upon arriving in Dublin would walk 10 miles at the age of 75 to pay her respects. This same woman who had one child requested that Peter give her away at her wedding and at the same time invited Anna to attend. The questions and suspicions this request raised, the answers offered, presumptions confirmed or denied.

   This is an interesting story to read, it is also devoid of the clichés that would reasonably be expected. The author seems to be in the greatest pain, not because of what may or may not have happened, but due to his feelings about his conduct as he tries to piece together 47 years of family mystery.

   This is a remarkably personal story, and because it is, often is almost uncomfortable to read. I don't know whether the story could have been related in a different manner, and my perception may be different from others.

No comments about A Ramble Through Life.

5 comments about The Life and Times of the Last Kid Picked.

1. but it lost speed quickly after that. I got about 1/4 of it read then I began skipping around. The result of doing that I decided it wasn't worth reading more of it.



2. I, like another reviewer on this page, played for the Publics and was 4-5 years behind Benjamin in Tomah, the small Wisconsin town described in this memoir. Benjamin got it right--the place, the era, the people, the experience of just being a kid. This is first-class writing: evocative, descriptive, precise, fun.



3. Mr. Benjamin's book is outstanding. For any boy that grew up in the Midwest playing sports - especially baseball or football - with friends in backyards, side lots, or in any empty field, this is an absolute must-read. The descriptions of people and places are written in such a way that made me laugh uncontrollably and just smile at the same time. Highly recommended.



4. I grew up playing for the "publics" in the town of Tomah. The author was four years ahead of me but my experiences were similar. I recognized almost every character in the book and remembered parts of my childhood that had been long forgotten. I never dreamed that this book would also tell the story of so many others growing up in the 50's. I applaud the author for this excellent book and wonder how he could remember so much of his childhood.



5. Everybody knows this kid. He was either in our class or in the family. Great storytelling. I think I married him as well. Have given this book for graduation, teen's birthday and now father's day. Good for all ages.

No comments about Longest Road to America: Volume 1: Childhood.

No comments about Oh Those Youthful Years.

No comments about Having the Last Word.

No comments about Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days.

1 comments about That Could Never Be: A Memoir.

1. The is a heart warming story of a person who started life in an orphanage in Ireland. Unlike Angela's ashes, this book has no ill feelings towards the events and people that caused the hardships. Only gratitude for those who helped ease the pain and assisted on the path to 'things that could never be'.
   I grew up in Ireland and feel this book more accurately reflects the atmosphere and spirit of those times.
   It is refreshing to share the life of someone whose life has been dedicated to the betterment of mankind without regards for personal benefit.
   If you want to read a book that will leave you feeling better than you did before - this is the book for you.

No comments about The Prefab Kid: A Postwar Childhood in Kent (Reminiscence).