Author: Andrew Bridge
Genre: Memoir, Standalone
Published: 2008
Personal Rating: 3.5/5 (good)
Yearly Count: 82
With his father out of the picture and a mother with mental health issues, Andy is put into the foster care system. He shares his experience of his placements.
I have a different view of Andy's life than he does, but I didn't live it - he did. However, what he discloses gives me the impression that he is ungrateful for the years he spent with a foster family. I could never know or fully comprehend the devastation that being taken away from your mother and plopped down in a stranger's home could do to a child, but his life wasn't that awful. Granted it wasn't the best - there certainly could have been more love and affection and a little less odd behaviors, but they were also dealing with a wounded, standoffish boy. He doesn't claim that his childhood was bad, but he talks of it in such a distant, cold voice that I didn't feel like he appreciated anything. All he wanted was his mother, which I understand. That in itself is the crux of his whole childhood. He focused on what he couldn't have and felt the void at every moment. Thankfully, he has become a successful lawyer for children's rights, so his childhood has given him a purpose and role in this world. In that respect, I am very happy for him.
I read this a long time ago and I know what you mean. I did wonder if he inherited some of his mother's mental illness.
ReplyDeleteBermudaonion ~ Oh! I'm going to come visit you and see what you wrote.
ReplyDeleteBermudaonion ~ I just checked and couldn't find a review. Maybe you read it before blogging.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to judge when someone has been brought up in foster care, but it's too bad if you felt he didn't appreciate what he had. People who are never satisfied or thankful make me sad :(
ReplyDeleteStacybuckeye ~ I think everybody's situation is unique and to make life a happy place to be - we often have to look on the positive side of things. He may very well be thankful, but I didn't see that in him.
ReplyDelete