Laurie Frankel

I’ve been thinking about how to describe this book that I liked so much. In many ways it reminded me of "Tom Lake" and "Lessons in Chemistry." India Allwood, the main character, has always wanted to be a serious actress on the Broadway stage (details of rehearsals and performances of several plays), yet she isn’t taken seriously and is misunderstood as a woman who intentionally places two of her newborn children in adoptive families. She is unusual in her attitudes towards family, children, adoption, and abortion. And even though these are significant topics, the book is very funny – lots of humor and wordplay and complicated plot twists that result in a heartwarming, hilarious, and slightly outrageous novel about adoption and what makes a family a “family family.”

During the pandemic, India has starred in a movie about adoption, and everything blows up while promoting the movie when she explains how she wants people to know that stories of adoption can be happy, not only the ones that tell of orphanages, abandonment, and tragedy. She explains how “there are infinity different kinds of families. And every member of every one has a different story to tell about it. So the fact that a few stories about adoption are the only ones that ever get told seems like a problem to me.”

The novel goes back and forth in time from India’s high school years to college, with her significant boyfriends, her 10-year-old adopted twins, as a notable Broadway actress, and as a famous TV superhero. I enjoyed how author Laurie Frankel wove the Covid pandemic into the plot, with our then naïve and wishful thinking that the lockdown would only last a few weeks (or a few months).

There is so much to like in this novel about family - whether adopted, bio, chosen, or found family. As India says, “no matter how they get made, family is a force to be reckoned with.” This thought-provoking and entertaining novel would make a great book club choice. I highly recommend it.… (mehr)