Out East of Aline : An Adoption Memoir [Paperback]

Rex L. Wilson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0964168847 | ISBN-13: 978-0964168848 | Publication Date: November 1, 2000

A valiant little boy, orphaned at four and adopted at five, struggles to be accepted as a normal kid in a rural Oklahoma community during the 1930s. This is a community where everyone knows evrybody else and where common knowledge holds that children adopted from the orphans' home always go bad and end up in jail.

His adopted parents are basically kind and well-meaning but they have no idea of what the boy is experiencing, his fears of being sent back to the orphans' home, his desperate wanting to belong.

Blessed with a remarkable intelligence, curiosity, and resilence, the boy learns to adapt to his new world and is helped by teachers and friends at Round Grove School. By the time he graduates from the eighth grade, he as come to grips with his adoption, and has learned valuable lessons that will assist him in later life.

Out East of aline is not only the story of one boy's adoption as told from a child's perspective, but offers new insights into daily life in rural Oklahoma during the Depression years.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-The author, a retired National Park Service archaeologist, brings his professional skills as an investigator of the past to bear on his own early life. In his preschool years, Wilson was named Billy Joe Tolliver and was the middle of three children born to an elderly Oklahoman and his young, uneducated wife. His father died when he was four, and before his fifth birthday, his mother had consigned her offspring to a public orphanage. Within months, however, Billy Joe was adopted by the Wilsons, and he entered first grade with his new name and his future recast. With clarity and grace, this memoir recounts these very early events, as well as the years through Wilson's graduation from eighth grade. While maintaining the viewpoint of the child he was, rather than offering retrospective and adult analysis, he is able to discern, question, and understand with varying degrees the onslaught of emotions, social expectations, and economic realities that colored his first dozen years. Rural Oklahoma of the Depression era comes to life on these pages, without nostalgia, romanticism, or reduction to a sociopolitical paradigm. Wilson reports it as it felt, sounded, and appeared, and as he learned to uncover the meanings in the habits of those around him. This book offers much to readers struggling with adoption issues as well as to students of 20th-century American history. It will serve both researchers and casual readers.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

An interesting slice of U.S. history, capturing life in 1930s Oklahoma. Recommended for public libraries, particularly those in the Midwest. -- Library Journal, Nov. 1, 2000

Book offers much to readers struggling with adoption issues; students of 20th century American history, serving researchers and casual readers. -- School Library Journal Jan, 2001

Enjoyable book for general readers and meriting consideration by professionals, understanding crisis in development of children experiencing childhood emotional trauma. -- Journal of the Aemrican Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, May 2002

Recommended for public libraries, particularly those in the Midwest. -- Library Journal, November 1, 2000

Rex Wilson's absorbing re-creation of his life as an orphan during the Depression offers vivid views of farm family life... -- Frances Reiher, Librarian, Fairfax County, Fairfax, Virginia

Written in first person and from a child's point of view, the style is reminiscent of "Angela's Ashes." -- The Daily Oklahoman, Feb.2, 2001

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 381 pages
• Publisher: Uncommon Buffalo Pr (November 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964168847
• ISBN-13: 978-0964168848
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,655,980 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Golden Threads of History, December 9, 2000

By 

H. V. Barnard (Columbia, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Out East of Aline : An Adoption Memoir (Paperback)

Out East of Aline is one of those essential works that form the threads of a greater tapestry of our history. Written with a true voice, it is a poignant personal glimpse through the eyes of a youth, adopted into a loving and hard-working, yet rigid, family. The 1930s come alive in Wilson's memoir when he speaks of the simple things that made life exciting and, sometimes, disappointing. This is superb social history written and edited with deft professional hands. This book is one of a series published by the Uncommon Buffalo Press. All the books in the series are beautifully written, well-edited, and typographically pleasing. This book will be enjoyed by everyone from those interested in adoption to those interested in life during the 1930s, to those who know of the importance of local history in the history of our country. Read it. It's a page-turner you won't ant to put down.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Written from a child's point of view, September 6, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out East of Aline : An Adoption Memoir (Paperback)

Out East Of Aline: An Adoption Memoir is more than a biography. Author and retired archaeologist Rex L. Wilson writes from a child's point of view, remembering his own abandonment at an orphanage at the tender age of four and a half years. He was adopted by an Oklahoma farming couple a year later. Thus began his journey into the strange ways of his new home, the heartbreak of learning that his biological mother would never claim him, the unease of living in a community where adopted children were mistrusted as reform school candidates (at best), and finally, gradual acceptance into his new way of life. Out East Of Aline is not only about adoption issues; ultimately a tale of perseverance, hope, and the joys of living. Recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Touching, informative and thought-provoking, September 6, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Out East of Aline : An Adoption Memoir (Paperback)

I read this book with my book club and was pleasantly surprised by both the high quality of the author's prose and the amazing detail of his memory. Researchers say that strong emotion fixes details of situations in one's head and that was clearly the case for Rex Wilson. His recollections tell the reader not only about his own abandonment, adoption and childhood, but paint a fascinating portrait of life in rural Oklahoma in the Depression years.

I think the editing could have been a little tighter and I would have liked to have seen more photos, but the memoir was great. I'll never look at adoption the same way again.