Immediate Family

Product Information

While the character is fiction, the common characteristics of an ESOL student being treated as if they had a disability is a reality many kids face and it’s not uncommon for adoptive parents to prefer thinking the problem is within the child, not the process they child has been put through. Powerful vignettes, such as memories of Danny being bullied as a child for looking different, blend with musings about the history of transracial adoption, Victorian literature, and famous adoptees. In his teens, Danny develops a habit of stealing his parents’ credit cards and going on lavish spending sprees without any thought of the consequences. On this topic, this quote hit me particularly hard: “Maybe my childlessness had also bound me to our parents; my only concept of family was a nostalgic one. The paragraph goes on with some fine prose about her reaction to her parents’ bodies, which is nevertheless of mysterious relevance to this tale, and downright icky in a letter to a brother.

Taken against the Arcadian backdrop of her woodland summer home in Virginia, Sally Mann’s extraordinary, intimate photographs of her children reveal truths. We exchanged answers on a live, collaborative google document over the course of several months, and spoke about the motivations and intricacies behind this beautifully crafted debut novel about motherhood, infertility, race, and the many ways in which to talk about the love housed within our ideas of family. black and white candid photographs, mostly full page or double page spread, of the photographer's children, at rest or play in rural circumstance. WHAT I’VE NEVER BEEN ABLE to describe to you or anyone else is how I meant those words growing up, He’s just my brother, that you were my blood, my coconspirator, my nuisance, my baby.Mann responded to the criticisms saying she did not plan the photographs and that when she was young, she was often nude, so she raised her children similarly. Since then I have had the pleasure of seeing the way people interact with it on the shelves, of witnessing how its unique premise captures their attention, of engaging with the conversations that spring up around it before they decide to take a copy home. It tells stories about insect stings, sun-kissed lunches, familial devotion, and the transformative power of nature. He has worked in the editorial departments at Henry Holt and Company, the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, and W.

This book brings up important themes around the topic of adoption, particularly transracial adoptions, and really challenges the ignorance the world can often have towards adoption— simply seeing it as this beautiful, life-changing thing for the adoptee, without realizing the complex journey, and oftentimes painful experiences, that are impactful for the adoptee and the adoptee’s family. When the book’s chronic exasperation gives way to affection and hilarity, it’s as if somebody has thrown all the windows open .

I feel like this storyline didn't need the extra personal secrets/drama and they instead detracted from the general difficulty of assimilation by nurture. W]hat did I know about which facts should be collected or shed in the story of a person,” she wonders, struggling to adequately describe the complex connection she shares with her brother. I’ll refrain from any additional spoilers, but there is one more element that is worth briefly noting.