The Mistress's Daughter [Mass Market Paperback]

A. M. Homes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 25, 2008

The acclaimed writer A. M. Homes was given up for adoption before she was born. Her biological mother was a twenty-two-year-old single woman who was having an affair with a much older married man with a family of his own. The Mistress's Daughter is the ruthlessly honest account of what happened when, thirty years later, her birth parents came looking for her. Homes relates how they initially made contact and what happened afterwards, and digs through the family history of both sets of her parents in a twenty-first-century electronic search for self. Daring, heartbreaking, and startlingly funny, Homes's memoir is a brave and profoundly moving consideration of identity and family.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Jane Adams turns her considerable talents to Homes's memoir about meeting her biological parents when she was in her early 30s. Adams captures the narrator and all the members of both the adoptive and biological families. Her rendition of Homes is so smart and urbane yet wary that listeners might assume that Homes herself is telling her own story. Ellen Ballman, the biological mother, is portrayed as Auntie Mame gone bad-her boisterous voice quickly descends from that of a woman overcome with joy at hearing her daughter to whiny demands to be taken care of. Perhaps Ellen is a bit too shrill-almost anyone would hang up after hearing this voice on the other end of a phone. Adams portrays Norman Hecht, also referred to as "the Father," with a voice as large as his considerable fortune; he cons his daughter into taking a DNA test, then refuses to give her the results. Even Adams can't make the second half of the book exciting, as she reads page after page of questions planned for a deposition. Simultaneous release with the Viking hardcover (Reviews, Jan. 15).
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Critics agree that the first part of A. M. Homes's book, an expanded version of a 2004 New Yorker essay, is a riveting family story. Told in the same taut prose that gives her fiction (In a Country of Mothers, 1993; Music for Torching, 1999) its "stylish nihilism" (New York Times), The Mistress's Daughter offers a straightforward, unblinking account of meeting—and facing—one's birth parents for the first time. The mixed reviews stem from an equally mixed bag of reactions. A few critics decry the dramatic drop-off when Homes expands the scope of her genealogical research outside her two birth parents. Others find the author's indignation and tightly controlled rage poignant. Homes treads the memoirist's paper-thin line between self-discovery and egocentrism with marginal success.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 238 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (March 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143113313
• ISBN-13: 978-0143113317
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,096,584 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brutally honest and touching, April 28, 2007

By 

bookarts "bookarts" (Somewhere in CA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Mistress's Daughter: A Memoir (Hardcover)

While I think it is possible for anyone to appreciate the beautiful writing and the touching story of The Mistress's Daughter, it surely carries special meaning for adoptees. I am quite sure that I am not the only adoptee who nodded her head throughout the book as Homes articulated so many of the thoughts I have had about myself and my family through the years. Another reviewer complained that Homes was only speculating about her birth parent's lives in the second half of the book, yet that was exactly the point. After years with thousands of questions and no answers, adoptees who have met their birth parents are usually met with the disappointing realization that they will never have all the answers. The speculation never ends. Homes' book was note-perfect in capturing that and so many other aspects of the adoption experience. I usually give away my books after I read them, but I will be reading this one again.

I feel compelled to address one other issue. As an adoptee, I found one reviewer's headline, "A Case For Abortion", to be incredibly offensive. I am pro-choice, but telling an adoptee they should have been aborted simply because you don't like what they wrote is disgusting. I too question the motives of some of the negative reviewers, some of whom clearly did not read the book.

47 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Recommended, April 10, 2007

By 

Nancy J. Mumford "njm1958" (W. Barnstable, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mistress's Daughter: A Memoir (Hardcover)

Interesting that the two negative reviews posted so far come from people in Washington - wonder who they are and how they are connected to the story??

I read this book in about 3 hours in one sitting and was absolutely fascinated. Rather than being a typical story of an adopted child who rediscovers her wonderful birth parents, A.M. Homes is truthful about her fears and the emotional rollercoaster this information sends her on. Her relationships with her newly discovered biological parents are unsatisfying for various reasons and she struggles with her feelings and definition of what a family is. I thought the book offered a very interesting perspective and was well done. Recommended!

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you love her fiction--you'll be further impressed, April 6, 2007

By 

subway reader "[e-mail]" (New York City, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mistress's Daughter: A Memoir (Hardcover)

I couldn't put down---I've been reading Homes work for many years--going back to her first novel Jack--and on through the terrifying End of Alice--the smart stories in Things You Should Know and last year's inspiring, This Book Will Save Your Life. Now Homes is letting us into her life--giving her readers the back story on who she is. And it's a real case of truth being stranger than fiction. I admire her for letting us in, for sharing the incredible sadness of finding out who her biological parents were--both of them seem soo incredibly self involved, narcisistic--in the end it's a good thing that Homes' was adopted by a family who seemed to truly "get" her and to support her artistic endeavors. This is a heartbreaking and wonderful read--and really informative for those of us who don't know the world of adoption--of searching and reunion with lost family. I really enjoyed the second half of the book--which takes the reader on a kind of wild ride though the land of internet geneology and search for self.