The Mistress's Daughter

April 2, 2007
Jane Adams turns her considerable talents to Homes's memoir about meeting her biological parents when she was in her early 30s. Adams captures the narrator and all the members of both the adoptive and biological families. Her rendition of Homes is so smart and urbane yet wary that listeners might assume that Homes herself is telling her own story. Ellen Ballman, the biological mother, is portrayed as Auntie Mame gone bad-her boisterous voice quickly descends from that of a woman overcome with joy at hearing her daughter to whiny demands to be taken care of. Perhaps Ellen is a bit too shrill-almost anyone would hang up after hearing this voice on the other end of a phone. Adams portrays Norman Hecht, also referred to as "the Father," with a voice as large as his considerable fortune; he cons his daughter into taking a DNA test, then refuses to give her the results. Even Adams can't make the second half of the book exciting, as she reads page after page of questions planned for a deposition. Simultaneous release with the Viking hardcover (Reviews, Jan. 15).

February 15, 2007
In this nonfiction work, part of which previously appeared in "The New Yorker", novelist Homes ("In a Country of Mothers") explores her roots. At first, all she knew about her parentage was that she was adopted. But when she was 31, her birth mother reappeared, wanting to become involved in her life. Piece by piece, Homes learned more about her birth parents' lives, though their versions do not always match. She began to realize that her part in their relationship was almost incidental; both were more concerned with their own needs than with hers. Yet she was still compelled to try to understand their background and motivations, no matter how emotionally trying and painful. Homes draws you in from the first sentence and holds your interest throughout, sharing her fear, disappointment, pathos, and bathos. She creates a possible deposition scene with her birth father that is both devastating and brilliant, covering all the ground she has unearthed in her explorations. By the end, you'll feel glad that nurture rather than nature has been dominant in her upbringing. Highly recommended for all libraries. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 12/15/06.]Gina Kaiser, Univ. of the Sciences Lib., Philadelphia

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 15, 2007
Homes is a Tilt-a-whirl novelist who discloses ordinary existence's hidden bizarreness, most recently in " This Book Will Save Your Life " (2006). She now presents a can't-put-it-down memoir as remarkable for its crystalline prose, flinty wit, and agile candor as for its arresting revelations. Readers will recognize the true-life source of Homes' novel " In a Country of Mothers" (1993) as she recounts the fraught circumstances of her irregular adoption: baby Homes was handed over on the street like contraband. Homes knows nothing about her birth parents until she turns 31, and learns that her mother was only 17 when she and her married-with-children boss began an affair that abruptly ended when both his mistress and his wife became pregnant. Homes navigates distressing, often surreal interactions with the demanding strangers who provided her DNA. Then, after her mother's unnerving death, she embarks on an extensive genealogical quest to trace both biological and adopted bloodlines. Homes masterfully distills angst and discovery into a riveting tale of nature and nurture that encompasses America's great patchwork of immigrants and secrets; a double-helix legacy entwining Christian slaveholders with Jewish refugees; and, as she brings her daughter into the world, the evolution of women's lives. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)

January 15, 2007
Novelist Homes's searing 2004 New Yorker
essay about meeting her biological parents 31 years after they gave her up for adoption forms the first half of this much-anticipated memoir, but the rest of the book doesn't match its visceral power. The first part, distilled by more than a decade's reflection and written with haunting precision, recounts Homes's unfulfilling reunions with both parents in 1993 after her birth mother, Ellen Ballman, contacted her. Homes (This Book Will Change Your Life
,) learns that Ballman became pregnant at age 22, after being seduced by Norman Hecht, the married owner of the shop where Ballman worked. But Ballman's emotional neediness and the more upwardly mobile Hecht's unwillingness to fully acknowledge Homes as a family member shakes Homes's deepest sense of self. The rest of the memoir is a more undigested account of how Ballman's death pushed Homes to research her genealogy. Hecht's refusal to help Homes apply to the Daughters of the American Revolution based on their shared lineage elicits her "nuclear-hot" rage, which devolves into a list of accusing questions she would ask him about his life choices in a mock L.A. Law
episode. The final chapter is a loving but tacked-on tribute to Homes's adoptive grandmother that may leave readers wishing the author had given herself more time to fully integrate her adoptive and biological selves.