Customer Reviews

May the Circle Be Unbroken: An Intimate Journey Into the Heart of Adoption

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As an adoptee fortunate enough to find her birthparents (and therefore being familiar with all aspects of the triad), I found Lynn C. Franklin's book excellent. I have read many books about adoption, this one outshines them all. It was not overly clinical or statistical and was written with compassion, heart and objectivity. Adoption is such a complex topic, this is not an accomplishment to be taken lightly. Ms. Franklin's candid personal reflections of the search for her son stirred emotions deep within this reader and in my opinion brings greater understanding to everyone who has been touched by adoption or is interested in the subject. She gives voice to birthparents, adoptees and adoptive parents and their struggles with depth and kindness and backs it up with facts and experience. I am grateful to her for her efforts.

Lynn Franklin touches on all sides of the triad in this book. It really gave me some insight into my true feelings on being adopted. My adoptive mother, and birth mother have all read it and loved it.

As a successfully reunited adoptee who is close to her parents and her birthmother, I find that adoption literature often lacks full perspective. Adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents are portrayed in many cases as beleaguered heroes/heroines, pathetic victims or manipulative and uncaring villians.

"May the Circle be Unbroken" provides a more realistic view, fully considering what each member of the triad experiences at the time of placement and at the time of search and (possibly) reunion. It presents a clear, mature and sane description of what one might encounter during different stages of the triad's lifetime. The birthmother author presents a fully-realized description of her own agony at relinquishment without slipping into self-pity. She has a strong grasp on the feelings of the adoptee and adoptive parent as well, yet she acknowledges that everyone's experience is different. Theories (such as the "Primal Wound") are presented as conjecture and possibility rather than fact.

The firm grounding provided by this clear-eyed presentation could be extraordinarily useful to help birthmothers to heal, to aid adoptive parents in understanding the challenges they may face and to prepare all three "sides" to cope with the unexpected joys and traumas assoociated with search and reunion. Franklin helps each person touched by adoption by arming them with a full perspective and letting them know that they are not alone.

I am both an adoptee and a birthmother. I recently started reading every book about adoption I can get my hands on. My adoptive mother has read this book too and it has helped both her and me to understand some of the things that bothered me while I was growing up.

I gave my daughter up in an open adoption and I'm sending her adoptive parents a copy of this book to help them understand some of her concerns and thoughts about being an adoptee. I'm also hoping it will help their family understand why I have such a hard time staying in touch with them.

This is by far the most informative book I've read and would recommend it to any adoptee, birthmother, adoptive family or anyone thinking about adopting a child.

Thanks for a well-researched, well-written, and very informative book. As an adoptive parent, I have been looking for something like this to give my family and friends that would explain the numerous issues involved in a way that is both educational and helpful. And as my 9 yr old daughter gets older, your book will offer help as well to her and my wife and as we wrestle with what to tell her. (We had an open adoption and have told our daughter from the earliest time that she is adopted.)

As a Korean adopted woman who was adopted into the U.S. in the 1960s, I also experienced similar but different shame & secrecy that muffles & stifles members of the adoption triad. I commend Ms. Franklin's courage & willingness to share her story of loss & triumph, so that others may learn & understand birth mothers, adoptees & also adoptive parents in the adoption triad experience. I hope that Ms. Franklin will continue writing, speaking & educating others about the joy & love, as well as the pain, sorrow & loss of adoption.

A must read for any member of the adoption triad- or anyone who's life has been touched by adoption.

This book explores the issues of adoption and reunion from all sides of the adoption triangle; and Ms. Franklin does it fairly and eloquently.

As an adoptee, "May the Circle Be Unbroken" was eye-opening to me. It validated many of the feelings I've had about adoption & lent perspective that I'd never before considered.

I like the way Franklin weaves the experiences of each side of the triad into a seamless whole. I've read most every book on adoption in print, and this is one of the best. My one criticism is that I think she tends to underplay the trauma inherent in giving up a child. As a birthmom in an open adoption, I can say with all honesty the grief never leaves me.

Poignant, timeless, and compelling, this book should be required reading for every young woman considering adoption and its likely consequences.

The only reason I give this book even two stars is that it's written by a birth mother, which is pretty unusual. Unfortunately, we do not get enough of her own and her son's stories; it is not a memoir. Neither is it a well-researched informational book about adoption. The information it contains is pretty superficial. (To give an idea, the author cites People magazine for the earth-shattering news that some foreign-born adoptees are now searching for their roots.) It's also not very well-written: despite her boast that ``literature and language have always been part of my life'' as a translator and publisher, the author comes across as not only stilted but downright ungrammatical. In short, I found this book a boring read and not worth the effort. Too bad, because there aren't many books out there from the birth mother's perspective.