Dani Shapiro

"The ... author of Hourglass now gives us a new memoir about identity, paternity, and family secrets--a real-time exploration of the ... discovery she made last year about her father, and her struggle to piece together the hidden the story of her own life"--

A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love

Inheritance

From the acclaimed, best-selling memoirist and novelist - 'a writer of rare talent' (Cheryl Strayed) - a memoir about the staggering family secret uncovered by a genealogy test: an exploration of the urgent ethical questions surrounding fertility treatments and DNA testing, and a profound inquiry of paternity, identity, and love.

momo-reads

Another privileged middle aged white woman mistaking navel gazing for introspection and personal growth.  If you liked Wild by Cheryl Strayed or Flat Broke With Two Goats by Jennifer McGaha this is probably the book for you.

Flavia Louise

Melody Izard

What a thought provoking read. Dani (now her legal name because she never forgave her mother for giving her a name that was misspelled or didn't exist on the name.org list) discovers (through a lackadaisical genetic testing from Ancestry.com) that she is not genetically related to her half sister and that she is only 52% Ashkenazic Jewish. Her parents are both dead, so there's no one to ask "what's up with that shit?". She does some sleuthing and some interviewing and some writing and finds her biological father. She questions who she is and who is family and what does she have a right to know. She shows that this whole genetic testing thing can certainly be a quick way to open up a can of worms. 

Why just a month ago I was getting my nails done and the Vietnamese technician (who has Caucasian features) was all a bubble because she had just found her biological dad. She was lucky. His family seemed to welcome her as part of their family, even though he had no idea of her existence until she contacted him. I say his family "seemed" to welcome her because she wanted me to watch the entire video of their first encounter and they all smiled like they were just fine with all of a sudden discovering dear dad had a 45 year old daughter. 

I had a scare. Well it wasn't really a scare, but I certainly questioned the accuracy of the genetic testing results. I had a genetic analysis by ancestry.com. They are pretty expensive if you want to keep the account active and I have cancelled my monthly subscription. They try to entice you to make it active again by sending you messages like: "we have new records of some 4th cousins you might want to check out!) and stuff like that. But I got a notice that said "we have a new record of someone who is probably your daughter." What????!!!! I think I would know if I had a daughter!!!!! Well I do have one. And of course it was just that she had taken her own test and I just didn't know about it. So..... no surprises there. But just for a minute........!

Back to the book. One thing Dani didn't resolve in this book is her relationship with her mother. Boy oh boy. Sounds like it was rocky at best.

Julie Berman

 Bruna Acioly Leão

I think Shapiro is a very accomplished writer and she narrates the audiobook extremely well. Her writing and voice are captivating and kept me listening to her story until the end.

I feel strange giving a rating to something that is a memoir, a person's experiences have value to them, no matter what others might think of them. Based on writing alone, I would have given this a full five stars. However, based on my enjoyment and my capacity to relate to the saga that Shapiro went through after finding out that her father was not her biological father, I had to settle for a 3 star rating.

At first I was really interested: the inciting incident, so to speak, of this memoir is very intriguing if not downright shocking. After performing a simple online DNA test, Dani Shapiro discovers that she was not her father's biological daughter. Upon further investigation and self-reflection, she realizes that it was something that always lurked around her. She never looked like anyone in her family. She never felt like she completely belonged. 

It was an interesting story of self-discovery, but at some point towards the middle I found myself losing interest in the whole thing. To put it simply: I don't believe families or parentage are defined by genetics. They are defined by connections and love. If you are lucky, you can have both, but honestly, it doesn't and it shouldn't matter who you are genetically related to, unless we are talking about genetically inherited diseases. 

There is some ethics to still be discussed in the topics of artificial insemination and how much and when to tell children about the history of their conceptions. The book gave me some food for thought on that matter, but eventually it got repetitive and I just wanted it to be over.

Inheritance A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love

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