The Baby Boat: A Memoir of Adoption

Rating:
Summary: The Baby Boat
Review: I read this book and fell in love with it. Couldn't put it down! It is a wonderful book for parents who are in the process of international adoption and for their families who want to know and feel what they are going thru.

Rating:
Summary: The Baby Boat
Review: I read this book and fell in love with it. Couldn't put it down! It is a wonderful book for parents who are in the process of international adoption and for their families who want to know and feel what they are going thru.

Rating:
Summary: a funny and poignant happy-ending story of adoption
Review: No wonder Patty Dann's memoir of adoption reads like a novel--she's a novelist! She wrote that movie MERMAIDS that Cher and Winona Ryder and Cristina Ricci were in. You can't put The Baby Boat down; you root for the characters; and you're choked up in some passages, smiling through others. The Baby Boat is a pleasure to read, and it also shows that courage and patience can pay off. Their new baby is a lucky little person, and I've given this book to other couples who are beginning the odyssey of adoption.

Rating:
Summary: A dissenting opinion
Review: The book jacket blurb describes this book in the same vein as Anne Lamotts' "Operating Instructions." This book does not come close to having the same style and finesse of Lamotts' work.

Written in a journal entry format, I found this memoir to be choppy and poorly written. Dann is blatantly struggling to be a "writer", to connect, evoke, and be profound. She fails on all counts. Interesting in content pertaining to international adoption, but not worth reading for any other reason.



Rating:
Summary: An insightful and positive view for a change!
Review: This book provides an entertaining and informative look inside the world of international adoption. Written in journal format, it gives the reader insight which could only be obtained through a personal memoir. There are moments of great hilarity as well as great sadness. But the story has a happy ending, and gives a positive view overall of the adoption process. With so much negative press about adoption in general, this was a breath of fresh air!