Book Review: Inheritance

My college roommate, Elizabeth, knew from early on that she was adopted. She wrote to me a year ago, saying she was searching for her birth mother. Thankfully, she found her and learned of a few half-siblings. Another friend from DeKalb, Jackie, sought DNA results and discovered, quite unexpectedly, that she was adopted. After seeing Elizabeth's favorable review of Dani Shapiro's Inheritance, on Goodreads, I put my name on the hold list at the library. The author's experience was more in line with Jackie's story.

Dani Shapiro grew up in a Jewish home, deeply rooted in Jewish traditions and identity. Yet, people always told her she didn't look Jewish. When her husband sought further information about his genetic background, she submitted a vial of saliva, expecting nothing unusual. However, the results revealed her father was not her birth father and her half-sister was no relation at all. Dani was one of the lucky ones. With minimal information about a first cousin, she managed to locate and contact her birth father. He had been a medical student and contributed sperm to the Farris Institute in Pennsylvania, where her parents had gone for help in getting pregnant. Suddenly, Dani saw a face that resembled her own. It upended her world and her identity. Shapiro tells the story of contacting the doctor who provided half of her genes. He could have simply ignored her letter, but he reached out to her.

The memoir, well-written and intriguing, offered so much to think about in terms of identity and medical ethics. The book was due back to the library in a few days, yet I had no difficulty quickly consuming it. Once again, it provided an excellent opportunity to step into the shoes of another and walk a mile. My face resembles the faces of my parents and siblings and I have always been secure in my identity as a member of the Gorton family. I could ask, "What must it be like to grow up with lingering doubt about your identity, and to find, at age 54 (the age I will be in three weeks' time) that everything you thought was true was a lie." It must have been traumatic for someone who identified as a Jew, one of God's chosen people, to learn of Gentile roots. Yet, in the end, she is still the daughter of the ones who raised her in the traditions of their religion. She can simply identify with two families.