Meeting Sophie: A Memoir of Adoption

by Nancy McCabe

The baby is screaming again. My baby. I hoist her off the narrow hotel bed--again--and try to cradle her as I rock my torso back and forth in an uncomfortable straight-backed chair. This baby does not... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0826214959
• ISBN13: 9780826214959
• Release Date: November 2003
• Publisher: University of Missouri Press
• Length: 174 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A good book that needs a subtitle revision

I think that Nancy McCabe's memoir is so good that I order it for my students at the college where I teach as part of the required reading material in my literature class on cultural identity. I first picked it up a few years ago when I was reading everything I could get my hands on about Chinese adoptions before my husband and I adopted our daughter from China. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this is a memoir about much more than international adoption. McCabe is writing about identity within the family, the myths that parents and other members of a family often create about one another, and the struggle of finding one's identity especially as a girl in America. I think that in many ways the book shows how much all women--in America, China, etc.--have in common when it comes to the dilemma of needing to be an individual yet wanting to be accepted. I think that the subtitle of this book (A Memoir of Adoption) needs to be omitted or changed and that the book needs to be marketed as a memoir about cultural identity, parenting, and self-discovery--as well as adoption.

A Way with Words

Nany McCabe has a way with words; she created such a powerful, moving story. From the beginning I got the sense that she was an interesting and intelligent person, but what I loved is how she grew emotionally. Through the book, she began recognizing the love and the limitations of love that bound her and her family. This book helped me analyze parent and adult children dynamics as well as reflect on adoptive parent and child relationships. As a daughter and an upcoming adoptive mother, I felt a sense of recognition and hope.

Moving and inspiring

The reader who wasn't interested in McCabe's personal life doesn't seem to understand that a memoir is by definition a narrative composed from personal experience. Meeting Sophie is not just about "the adoption process." Instead, it eloquently and poignantly demonstrates how becoming a parent--however one accomplishes it--affects all aspects of a life, making other challenges seem larger and at the same time easier to face. A moving and inspiring story.

A delight

This book is marvelous, not just because of the fascinating and moving story of Sophie's adoption, but also in how it sheds light on the particular dilemmas women face as mothers, daughters, teachers, writers. The chapter that focuses on the author's father is alone worth the price of the book. Meeting Sophie is sometimes sad, sometimes hilarious, always gutsy and beautiful. McCabe is truly a gifted writer.

Moving and Real

McCabe's book strikes a chord with many of us who are adopted and ever wondered about the special relationship that can develop in chosen families. Never before have I read about the two-way path between mothers (and fathers) and children who find each other with such pathos and wonder. McCabe is a lucky Mom to have been adopted by such a wonderful little girl. Now we're fortunate to be able to have "Sophie" for oursevles.