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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
When Holtz, a former staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, was in her early 30s, married and a mother of two, she set out to find her birth parents. Her memoir begins with this intriguing scene: One night in 1959, a lawyer arranged for a smiling, well-educated woman named Helen to pass her newborn baby through a car window to Lynn and Manny Skar. Six years later, Manny, a mobster, was gunned down in the street near the family's Chicago apartment house. Holtz's memoir focuses on her search for and bewildering interactions with her birth mother, Helen, who turns out to be a delusional and eccentric Ayn Rand follower, given to weirdly Randian pronouncements, like calling Holtz's "invasion of [her] privacy... a precursor to violence." At first the book is suspenseful: Holtz speculates that Helen's con man boyfriend may have been her father, and fears the possibility that Helen will retaliate physically, attacking Holtz and her family. Holtz uses her journalistic skills to research her family's strange story and to weave it into a gripping narrative. But readers lured by the intriguing jacket and the fast-paced first half into expecting an electrifying climax will be disappointed. Still, fans of family drama and anyone involved with adoption issues will find Holtz's story both instructive and touching. (May)Forecast: A $20,000 marketing campaign, including an author tour to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago, should help this book ride the continuing enthusiasm for family memoir.
From Booklist
Don't believe those heartwarming stories on TV about the now-adult adoptee searching relentlessly for her birth mother, and, TV crew in tow, finally reuniting with Mom, hugging and kissing as joyful tears stream down both faces. Holtz was adopted as an infant in a "gray market adoption," arranged for cash paid to a lawyer by affluent adoptive parents with gangster connections. She apparently never felt at home or like one of the family. With stubborn hostility, her mother refused to discuss the adoption beyond the fact that the birth mother handed the days-old infant to her through a car window. Holtz's investigation as an adult repeatedly dead-ended, which led her to suspect that her adoptive mother used crime connections to have a building full of records destroyed by arson. And when Holtz finally saw and spoke to her birth mother, the elusive woman on whom she had pinned so many hopes, the reunion she reports somberly counterbalances the ones on TV. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
When Holtz, a former staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, was in her early 30s, married and a mother of two, she set out to find her birth parents. Her memoir begins with this intriguing scene: One night in 1959, a lawyer arranged for a smiling, well-educated woman named Helen to pass her newborn baby through a car window to Lynn and Manny Skar. Six years later, Manny, a mobster, was gunned down in the street near the family's Chicago apartment house. Holtz's memoir focuses on her search for and bewildering interactions with her birth mother, Helen, who turns out to be a delusional and eccentric Ayn Rand follower, given to weirdly Randian pronouncements, like calling Holtz's "invasion of [her] privacy... a precursor to violence." At first the book is suspenseful: Holtz speculates that Helen's con man boyfriend may have been her father, and fears the possibility that Helen will retaliate physically, attacking Holtz and her family. Holtz uses her journalistic skills to research her family's strange story and to weave it into a gripping narrative. But readers lured by the intriguing jacket and the fast-paced first half into expecting an electrifying climax will be disappointed. Still, fans of family drama and anyone involved with adoption issues will find Holtz's story both instructive and touching. (May)Forecast: A $20,000 marketing campaign, including an author tour to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago, should help this book ride the continuing enthusiasm for family memoir.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Don't believe those heartwarming stories on TV about the now-adult adoptee searching relentlessly for her birth mother, and, TV crew in tow, finally reuniting with Mom, hugging and kissing as joyful tears stream down both faces. Holtz was adopted as an infant in a "gray market adoption," arranged for cash paid to a lawyer by affluent adoptive parents with gangster connections. She apparently never felt at home or like one of the family. With stubborn hostility, her mother refused to discuss the adoption beyond the fact that the birth mother handed the days-old infant to her through a car window. Holtz's investigation as an adult repeatedly dead-ended, which led her to suspect that her adoptive mother used crime connections to have a building full of records destroyed by arson. And when Holtz finally saw and spoke to her birth mother, the elusive woman on whom she had pinned so many hopes, the reunion she reports somberly counterbalances the ones on TV. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
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- Writer's Guide to Book Editors, Publishers, and Literary Agents: Who They Are! What They Want! and How to Win Them Over! (13th Edition) by Jeff Herman on page 365
- Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Publishers, Editors and Literary Agents 2004: Who They Are! What They Want! and How to Win Them Over! (Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Editors, Publishers, and Literary Agents) by Jeff Herman on page 409
- Writer's Guide to Book Editors, Publishers, and Literary Agents, 13th Edition (with CD-ROM): Who They Are! What They Want! And How to Win Them Over! (Writer's Guide) by Jeff Herman on page 365