Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom

When your sister-in-law cleans out her book shelves, you get free books! Here is #2.

A heartbreaking memoir of an adoptee growing up in Sweden and searching for her Korean roots as an adult. This book got under my skin. The art didn’t quite agree with me, but I thought that it fit the story very well.

The racism the author experiences is horrifying and all too familiar. I cringe when “well-meaning” persons do not allow you to tell and understand your own story in your own way – “but imagine, what would your life had been like if… should you not be grateful?” I cannot imagine what it must be like to feel like a blank slate before being adopted, to feel rootless and adrift.

There is a dark side to international adoptions that doesn’t come into the limelight enough – the corruption, the forged documents, the trafficking of children, the authorities who refuse to answer questions. Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom’s and her husband’s tireless search for answers reads like a mystery novel at times. The web of secrets and lies seems endless, and the information they do find just raises more questions. I hope they will find closure in the future.… (mere)

Alot of the dialogue is actually exposition with the illustrations showing the emotions of the characters. The color scheme was basically light brown with other cool toned colors. It looked depressing to me but this story is about the depression that the author felt. In fact, she tried to kill herself. The documents that she and her husband sent to Korean adoption agencies are illustrated in full as well as the responses that they received. While the story informs us about the unique Korean adoption process, there are general roadblocks written in to the story that all adoptees face. It was heartbreaking when a letter came in the mail with less information than was expected. It is also easy for the reader to see all of the steps an adoptee has to take in order to discover their biological background.

All in all, a great memoir.… (mere)

Lisa Wool Rim Sjöblom was born in Korea and adopted by Swedish parents. She first attempted to find her birth parents as a teenager, but adoption services were unhelpful. After she had her own children, she tried again. Thanks to her persistence, and her husband's, and a helpful Korean police officer, Lisa does find her mother and father, and another version of the stories she had received from the adoption agencies, which repeatedly withheld documents from her, fabricated documents, and outright lied. A family trip to Korea, with a friend along as a translator, helps to unearth a truer version of her story.

A crushing and honest story of international, transracial adoption, told from the POV of an adoptee (who points out, rightly, that most literature for adoptees is written from the adoptive parents' perspective). The color palette is a muted sepia, like an aged document.

Footnotes. See also: All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung

Quotes

It's no wonder we adoptees forget that we were ever born. We're taught that our existence began the day we met our new families. (13)

I remembered how I slowly began to understand that belonging isn't something you start feeling just because other people want you to. (19)

In a way it was better when there was no representation, because at least it wasn't directly offensive. (25)

To me, being adopted didn't mean I was chosen, like others wanted me to believe. It meant I was rejected. (28)

Everybody asks questions about where they come from. Why is it so controversial when adoptees do it? (42)

In Sweden I'm at home, but I feel like a stranger.
In Korea, I'm a stranger, but I feel at home. (83)

Reunions are not like the movies. You spend a lot of time waiting for translations. (107)… (mere)