Customer Reviews

Outer Search\Inner Journey: An Orphan and Adoptee's Quest

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I could not put down the book! You will truly become part of the story. I felt I was there right along on the incredible journey to find Peter's birth-mother. I have not read a book in a long time that has stayed with me long after I have finished it- like "Outer Search, Inner Journey." If you are looking for a book that will lift your spirit, and celebrate the joy of overcoming adverse conditions-this is a must read. I hope there is a sequel.

I picked up Outer Search\Inner Journey on a Tuesday night and started reading that evening. I was so captivated by this story that I took the next day off from work to finish reading this incredible book. I am not adopted but enjoy reading autobiographies. This book drew me into the author's life, his experiences-thoughts-feelings--like none other I have read. I felt I was by his side every page of his life. After reading this story, I am surprised adoption agencies placing foreign children don't discuss the destrutiveness caused by the child's loss of language, culture, heritage, history and family, as well as the emotional toll caused when a child is taken from her/his native land. I have friends who beleive it is quite fashionable to adopt children from abroad. This book offers a picture of the complexities and drawbacks of international adoption. Still, the author doesn't blame and his story is one of overcoming immense barriers to find purpose and fullfillment in life. A must read for everyone desiring to read a superbly written book with a powerful plot!

I first read Outer Search/Inner Journey in April 1997 during a plane ride home. I found the story to be so compelling that I could hardly put it down during the six hour flight, and ignored my dinner when it was served!

As a reunited birthmother of a son, I gained tremendous insight and understanding of the male adoptees struggle for identity, bonding, intimacy and healing. The narrative style kept my interest peaked from chapter to chapter and drew me into the rich history of the German culture in the search for roots.

Mr. Dodds candor, self evaluation and tales of human despair, allowed me to experience his struggle and embrace the impact of adoption on his adult life. As his story weaves through military experiences and romantic struggles, I felt moved by his attempts for resolution and healing through a journey of faith.

I highly reccomend this book to all members of the adoption triad as well as for anyone that has experienced feelings of loneliness and isolation. It's the best adoption story available to read and lingers long after the last page is finished!

Delores S Teller
President
Oregon Adoptive Rights Association
Portland Oregon

As I read this book I cried. Peter documents his personal journey with a courage and openness that cannot help but affect anyone who allows themself to share his pain. Although his is a story that begins with adoption this book is not just about adoption. Although it highlights the damage that can result from adoption it is more about one man's struggle to make sense of and survive a life shattered by early childhood experiences. This book is not just for those involved in adoption. All who read it can share Peter's pain and will be uplifted and encouraged by his bravery.

I am a social worker who has worked for 12 years helping adoptees trace their origins. Peter's story mirrors those of many adoptees. His experiences, as painful as they are, are more common than we might want to admit. In this book he shows us what can be achieved with courage, openness, and persistence. I admire him greatly.

As the parent of a child adopted internationally, I found great understanding in this book about such experiences --- from the child's perspective.

This book was a wonderful inspiration for me on our own family's (ultimately successful) search for our child's birth parents.

As the narrative makes clear, however, finding one's birth parents is not the be all and end all for any adopted child. It nevertheless provides the start of healing from a trauma, concerning which most psychologists, physicians and educators still have very little insight.

This book is very well written and provides a great understanding to parents of children adopted abroad.

However, the book will also assist anyone who works (in any capacity) with children adopted overseas. Highly recommended, along with The Primal Wound and Betty Jean Lifton's Twice Born.

I'd also like to personally thank the author for baring his soul. He's given healing to unknown others in a similar position --- a great deed that cannot have been easy.

This is a throughtful, beautifully written book that rings true to adoptee experience, particularly that of those who lost not only their birthfamily but their culture because of adoption. I am a poet and essayist, and also a birthmother/activist with over 20 years experience in adoption reform. I highly reccomend this book to birthmothers who want to know the soul of a male adoptee, to adoptees seeking a kindred spirit, and to those wishing to know how it really feels to be an international adoptee, including adoptive parents. International adoption today is largely driven by market values and greed, and abuses in the sytem are everywhere, despite the sincere love and caring of individual adoptive families . Anyone considering or involved in foreign adoption should read this book, and take its message to heart. Peter Dodds has provided helpful insight for us all by telling his personal story in such an honest, vivid, and literate way. A cut above most "my true story" adoption memoirs.

As a Korean Adoptee raised in a white American family, this book reflected many of my own issues & feelings about being adopted in a different culture & language. The author's childhood, struggles, confusion, questions, search & discovery are a testament to the strength & will that most adoptees must have to become himself. Adoptees who search, despite caring adoptive parents are not any more dysfunctional or neurotic than any non-adopted person who does not have to search to find her/his birth culture or learn her/his birth language. This book is well written, poignant, unflinchingly honest & bold, without being confessional, self-degradating, & self-conscious. The author speaks his voice with clarity, insight & openness. Most adoptive parents & possibly some birth parents will find this book difficult to read because of the author's unwillingness to promote international adoptions as the only solution to parenting & family planning. These adoptive parents are defensive, threatened & very insecure in realizing that their adopted children may justifiably want to search & this book explains the importance as only an adoptee could possibly explain--in his own words, from his own perspective & from a very important place--one that most adoptees have been silenced to existing in, outside of the international adoption industry. Signed, Mi Ok Song Bruining, MSW.

A story so compelling I read all night. The author holds nothing back. He bravely admits weaknesses and failures, broken dreams and broken hearts. He understates his huge accomplishments; accomplishments most only dream about. I admire his devotion and spirit. It is truly inspiring. I highly recommend this read for everyone as each of us can relate to portions of the author's journey...and learn from it.

As a German born adoptee my self. Outer search inner Journey made me realize that my own feelings for Germany and how I have lived my life were ok. that it was normal to think and feel like Germany was and is my homeland.
When I first started to read Peter's book it made me mad. how could someone wright things that I feel in a book so that others could read it? When I was done reading the book I was able for the fisrt time to tell a lot of my feelings to my adopted family. Thank You Peter!!!!I would have never been able to open up as much as I have with out this book to help me. This book told me that I am OK and not a crazy adoptee. Just another G.B.A.. Outer search Inner journey is a bright light for Adoptees from other lands!! Thanks again Peter Dodds
For the Record I have been reuinted with my Birth Familys. Bdad in the States and bmom passed away but I have a sister and brother in Germany.

Most people would like to believe that adoption is a lovely solution to the problem of an unwanted child. Taking a child from one world and immersing him or her into another without regard is as absurd as expecting a horse to live under water. Like Peter F. Dodds I was taken from my homeland, Germany, and plunged into another world. The shock and trauma that he went through is as honest and as real as it gets. What happened to Peter Dodds is what happens when trauma, (in this case the trauma of transcultural adoption), is not taken care of. As I read through this book I felt the chill of recognition at his questions as well as his confusion regarding his own identity. In many ways his struggle mirrored mine. This is a book that anyone involved in inter-country adoption should read.