Title: Inheritance Pdf A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love
From the acclaimed, best-selling memoirist and novelist—“a writer of rare talent” (Cheryl Strayed)—a memoir about the staggering family secret uncovered by a genealogy test: an exploration of the urgent ethical questions surrounding fertility treatments and DNA testing, and a profound inquiry of paternity, identity, and love.
What makes us who we are? What combination of memory, history, biology, experience, and that ineffable thing called the soul defines us?
In the spring of 2016, through a genealogy website to which she had whimsically submitted her DNA for analysis, Dani Shapiro received the stunning news that her father was not her biological father. She woke up one morning and her entire history--the life she had lived--crumbled beneath her.
Inheritance is a book about secrets--secrets within families, kept out of shame or self-protectiveness; secrets we keep from one another in the name of love. It is the story of a woman's urgent quest to unlock the story of her own identity, a story that has been scrupulously hidden from her for more than fifty years, years she had spent writing brilliantly, and compulsively, on themes of identity and family history. It is a book about the extraordinary moment we live in--a moment in which science and technology have outpaced not only medical ethics but also the capacities of the human heart to contend with the consequences of what we discover.
Mixed feelings all around As a medical student in the 1970s, I had classmates who picked up a little extra money by anonymously donating sperm for artificial insemination. The practice was normal by that point, moving away from the deep secrecy that shadowed Dani Shapiro's conception and childhood. Her reactions to the discovery of her concealed paternity and her search for meaning struck me as off-topic in what I'd expected to be a book about unraveling the mystery of her origins in a much more concrete way. That part was so quick and easy -- not the detective story I had anticipated. The rest was still a tale of mystery, but on a psycho-social plane. Who lied? Why? Who suspected the truth? How could Dani have ignored the hints? What does it mean to lose an identity that is tied to a false genealogy? How should an anonymous sperm donor react to being unmasked by DNA?Extensive introspection wasn't what I thought I had signed up for when I bought this book, but it turned out to be fascinating enough that I read it in one sitting.If there was a surprise in your DNA results, this book is definitely for you... I went into this book knowing it was a memoir (and that I don't usually read or particularly like those). But like the author, my DNA results turned up a few surprises and so I was very curious about someone else's journey... So bear in mind that might be the reason why I loved it so much. This book is really an exploration of the absolutely unexpected and often profound feelings we have around what makes us who we are and our identity. The author wrestles with the questions about this that are becoming something that many people are now unexpectedly (or even expectedly) grappling with. Watching her struggle with how her biological vs. social ancestry have defined her was truly engrossing, and has a lot to bring to the conversation about what exactly makes us who we are (something that is really just now starting to be explored in the context of how common DNA testing has become). But in this brave new world where we can now spit in a tube and see the exact genes that make up who we are biologically, identity has become and lot more complicated, as are the stories we tell ourselves to go along with it. In the end I found her story incredibly touching, disturbing, satisfying, and much more familiar than I think I would have preferred...Relatable As someone who discovered thru my Ancestry DNA test close to age 40 that I was the product of artificial insemination, this story indeed struck a chord with me. Contrary to one of the comments above about there not being secrecy in the 1970s, there was indeed secrecy well into the 1980s regarding the use of donor sperm from med students/residents and the practice of artificial insemination. There are no records available to many donor-conceived adults conceived thru the late 1980s. Recipient parents were told that secrecy was of the utmost importance and never to tell the children conceived this way. It astounds me that so little thought was going into a practice that was creating human beings. Dani eloquently writes about feelings and deeply personal reflections that I myself have felt. Please remember that donor-conceived people are people with feelings and it is a basic human right to want to know where you came from. We did not ask to be created this way. If you know someone who is donor conceived or you yourself are, I highly recommend this book!
Freckled pdf
A Girl Called Renee pdf
The Inexplicable Survival of a Happily Fallible Child pdf
90 Days to Live pdf
The Tiger in the Yard pdf
Everything is Happening at Once pdf
Depression Blues pdf
BULLIED TO DEATH pdf
Jesus vs pdf
The Popish Midwife pdf
Long Way Out pdf
Growing Up Country pdf
Tags: B07DBRGMFB pdf,Inheritance pdf,A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love pdf,ebook,Dani Shapiro,Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love,Knopf,Autobiographies,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Cultural Heritage,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / General,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary Figures,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs,Biography & Autobiography/Cultural, Ethnic & Regional - General,Biography & Autobiography/Personal Memoirs,Biography/Autobiography,GENERAL,General Adult,Jewish women - United States,Jewish women;United States;Biography.,Non-Fiction,Novelists, American - 20th century,Novelists, American;20th century;Biography.,Shapiro, Dani,Women novelists, American,Women novelists, American;Biography.,biography; autobiography; biographies; autobiographies; biographies and memoirs; biographies of famous people; memoirs; memoir; literature; autobiography books; literary gifts; memoir books; literary biographies; family; true story; philosophy; judaism; england; historical; wwii; ivf; dna; fertility; geneology; ancestry; genealogy; genealogy gifts; faith; bible; king david; jewish books; parenting; parenthood; infertility books; fertility book; geneology dna test; geneology books; civil rights; american history; civil war; war; ethics,judaism;jewish books;memoirs;memoir;parenting;parenthood;infertility books;fertility book;geneology dna test;geneology books;ancestry;genealogy;genealogy gifts;ivf;dna;fertility;geneology;biography;autobiography;biographies;biographies and memoirs;biographies of famous people;autobiographies;literature;autobiography books;literary gifts;literary biographies;memoir books;true story;faith;civil rights;philosophy;king david;england;american history;bible;historical;family;civil war;war;ethics;wwii,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / General,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary Figures,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs,Biography & Autobiography/Cultural, Ethnic & Regional - General,Biography & Autobiography/Personal Memoirs
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.