Carroll, Rebecca. Surviving the White Gaze. 2022. 320p. Simon & Schuster, $18.99 (9781982116279) Recommended for adult readers.
Being adopted is “the precise and harrowing elucidation of unconditional love versus conditional love.” Carroll does not hold back her truths in this memoir beginning in her childhood adopted by artsy parents who did not believe in population growth and raised as the only Black person in her rural New Hampshire town. Rebecca narrates formative experiences with racism in friendships and romances internalizing harm without support for her racial identity. Flash forward to young adulthood Caroll navigates an on-and-off relationship with her biological mother, a white woman whose loyalty Rebecca seeks despite their relationship also being harmful. For adult adoptee readers who are healing and the people who love them, Carroll’s book reaches into the universal melancholy of being adopted and inspires adoptees to live their truth. This book is a must-have for the adult adoptee bookshelf.
The Adoptee Bookshelf 