Gabrielle Glaser’s American Baby: A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption

In late January, I listened to the New York Times Book Review Podcast interview with Gabrielle Glaser, NYT-bestselling author and journalist about her new book: American Baby: A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption.

I bought the book the second it was available and read it hungrily.

I’m happy to report that Glaser does a wonderful job of contextualizing the problems with closed adoption and telling the story of one birth mother and her son who were separated for decades.

I was so happy to see this book published about a month before mine; it gave me hope that the issue of closed adoption is not old news, that my book, Unnatural Selection: A Memoir of Adoption and Wilderness is relevant, even though closed adoption is less common now (thankfully!).

From the book’s jacket:

America during the baby boom was rife with hypocrisy. Women were expected to marry and raise families, although talking about reproduction and childbirth was taboo. Few schools offered sex education, birth control was hard to get, and abortion was illegal. Premarital sex was common, but young women who ‘got in trouble’ and their sons and daughters paid the greatest price... American Baby tells the intimate story of a mother and son separated by the adoption system…. After an adoption, state laws closed the door between [birth mothers and their children] forever. [This book tells] a story of loss, recovery, and the human need for identity. As closed adoption records are being challenged nationwide, [this book] shows a path to healing the wounds inflicted by years of shame and secrecy.

I contacted Glaser as soon as I finished reading American Baby, to tell her how much I appreciated her well-researched and accurate depiction of the closed adoption system’s nuances, inherent problems, and inevitable emotional and psychological fallout.

I also described my forthcoming book, and asked her if she would be interested in collaborating with me on some events in the future.

SHE SAID YES! I am so excited! Stay tuned for details about what we’re cooking up.

In the meantime, go buy her book and read it. It’s fabulous.