cover image Letters to My Birthmother: An Adoptee's Diary of Her Search for Her Identity

Letters to My Birthmother: An Adoptee's Diary of Her Search for Her Identity

Amy E. Dean. Pharos Books, $15.95 (133pp) ISBN 978-0-88687-615-9

This unsent, one-sided correspondence was written by Massachusetts resident Dean ( Night Light ), an adoptee and former foster child, at age 31 after she decided to seek her natural mother, and records her brief search for, reunion and unrewarding relationship with ``Ruth.'' Included is an account of the author's childhood, which was marred by the loving, adoptive father's divorce from his alcoholic wife. Dean poignantly conveys the suspense waiting for Ruth's first call, their meeting and her tentative queries about her birth and background. She found that, aside from a milk allergy, she and the woman had little in common, and concludes that while some questions of her past have been answered, their blood bond is not as strong as emotional attachments she has with other people. Author tour. (May)