Beneath A Tall Tree
Author: Jean A.S. Strauss
I enjoyed a break in the fact/stat-giving informative books
as I picked up this incredibly moving human story. In fact, I read it in a day
because I couldn’t put it down. The writer gives you detailed glimpses of her
life from the time she was born, adopted, and her journey of tracking down her
life history and family tree throughout her greater adulthood.
It gave me a good understanding and empathy for a person who
has their identity hidden from them. I understand the natural, driving desire
to connect with one’s roots which doesn’t imply any negativity toward either
the birth or foster/adoptive familes – it’s just part of who they are and the
child has the right to know their life history. One reviewer put it quite well,
“Strauss bares her soul in this fascinating adventure about her life. Besides
being enormously helpful to adoptees, it provides a deep, raw look into the
mindset of an adoptee…”. She also gives valuable insight into the feelings of
other members of the family circle. This book illustrates that you can have
more than one set of father/mother/siblings. She has not forgotten her adoptive
family that raised her, but she also appreciates the family ties of her birth
family as they found themselves in the reunion process.
I liked the metaphor of the book’s title representing her
adoptive dad as the tall, strong tree. On the cover it’s an old black and white
photograph of the author as a child and you see a elongated adult shadow
standing beside her. That shadow is her adoptive dad as he was always the one
taking the pictures rather than actually being in them most of the time, of
which I can relate. Behind that image is the symbolism of his strength and
character traits he’s instilled in her as they developed a special bond over
the years.
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