Forever Lily: An Unexpected Mother's Journey to Adoption in China
by Beth Nonte Russell
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Book Summary Information
Author: Beth Nonte RussellEdition: Paperback
Published: 2007-03-06
ISBN: 0743292979
Number of pages: 240
Publisher: Touchstone
Book Reviews of Forever Lily: An Unexpected Mother's Journey to Adoption in China
Book Review: Avoid this book!
Summary: 1 Stars
I am spending a few months abroad in South Africa, and a friend who visited left this book with me. I am considering an international adoption, so I thought the book would be interesting. However, this ranks as one of the worst, most annoying books that I have ever picked up. The author tells the story of how when she accompanied a friend to pick up the Chinese baby that the friend was adopting, she ended up adopting the child herself. If she had told the story in a straightforward fashion, it might have been fine, though her writing is not particularly strong and her personality not particularly sympathetic, since she has little compassion for her friend and shows little understanding of Chinese culture and society. But instead, she intersperses the text with accounts of her dreams about being a concubine to an Emperor. A good third of the book is about her dreams, which she sees as significant but which are in fact an offensive Orientalist fantasy. I found her reactions to a descriptions of China and the Chinese people offensive. If that isn't enough, in the middle of the book she starts bringing in her mystic spiritual adviser, whom she contacts several times from China. I have no objection to faith and the mystical - in fact, I love magical realism - but the author's mystical inclinations are so poorly developed and so lacking in reflection that they really become annoying. The book becomes increasingly focused on fate and how she has been destined to adopt this baby since her teen years when she started speaking Chinese in her sleep! Rubish!! How do things like this get published?
Summary of Forever Lily: An Unexpected Mother's Journey to Adoption in China
When Beth Nonte Russell travels to China to help her friend Alex adopt a baby girl from an orphanage there, she thinks it will be an adventure, a chance to see the world. But her friend, who had prepared for the adoption for many months, panics soon after being presented with the frail baby, and the situation develops into one of the greatest challenges of Russell's life.
Russell, watching in disbelief as Alex distances herself from the child, cares for the baby -- clothing, bathing, and feeding her -- and makes her feel secure in the unfamiliar surroundings. Russell is overwhelmed and disoriented by the unfolding drama and all that she sees in China, and yet amid the emotional turmoil finds herself deeply bonding with the child. She begins to have dreams of an ancient past -- dreams of a young woman who is plucked from the countryside and chosen to be empress, and of the child who is ultimately taken from her. As it becomes clear that her friend -- whose indecisiveness about the adoption has become a torment -- won't be bringing the baby home, Russell is amazed to realize that she cannot leave the baby behind and that her dreams have been telling her something significant, giving her the courage to open her heart and bring the child home against all odds.
Steeped in Chinese culture, Forever Lily is an extraordinary account of a life-changing, wholly unexpected love.
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