Waiting to Forget: A Motherhood Lost and Found by Margaret Moorman (English) Pap

The Nile on eBay   Waiting to Forget by Margaret Moorman

"[An] extraordinary memoir of [the author's] giving up for adoption the baby she bore at 16... beautifully written, psychologically nuanced and sociologically informed."—Nation

FORMATPaperback LANGUAGEEnglish CONDITIONBrand New Publisher Description

Described in the New York Times Book Review as "uniquely enlightening," Waiting to Forget is a mother's story of coming to terms with the child she gave up for adoption over thirty years ago. In 1965 Margaret Moorman was unmarried, pregnant, and still in high school. Forced by societal pressures to give her baby up, she suffered emotional trauma both before and for years after the birth. At forty, she gave birth to a daughter and found herself terrified by the possibility of losing her younger child, a fear she can now trace back to her uncertain decision to give up her son.Moorman discusses both her own complicated feelings of loss and motherhood and the issue of adoption from the often overlooked point of view of a birth parent.

Author Biography

Margaret Moorman is the author of Waiting to Forget. She lives in New York City.

Review

"For birth mothers of adopted children, Waiting to Forget will be a revelation and a comfort." -- New York Times Book Review "[A] hauntingly evocative memoir." -- Elle "[Moorman] has an artist's eye for detail and a pitch-perfect literary voice." -- The Oregonian

Kirkus US Review

The poignant but familiar story of a teenage mother and the lingering pain and shame she suffered after giving up her baby for adoption. Born in 1949, Moorman (My Sister's Keeper, 1992) hit puberty on the cusp of the sexual revolution. Girls were still wearing white gloves to church on Sunday and debating whether to be a "good" girl or a "bad" girl in the back seat of the family Plymouth on Saturday night. Moorman tipped into the bad-girl category by getting pregnant when she was 15, not long after her father's sudden death. She hid the news from her mother until it was too late to get an abortion (then illegal), carried her baby to term, and surrendered him for adoption. Nearly 30 years later, happily married, she gave birth to a little girl. Her extreme difficulty in parting from her daughter, even for a few hours, brought to the surface all the fear and confusion that she had buried in "abandoning" her first baby. In this volume, she recounts not only the story of her first pregnancy, but the muddled attitudes surrounding adoption today. Hidden away through most of her pregnancy (friends and neighbors were told that she was living with an aunt), she never saw her son after his birth. Her search for him was carried out in fits and starts, through books, phone calls, letters, and a network of support groups that served variously the needs of adopted children, adoptive parents, and birth parents. She did locate her son, and although they have not yet met in person, Moorman has allowed her young daughter a longer leash because of what she's learned about herself. An honest, heartfelt account of one woman's feelings, along with a look at the mixture of guilt, judgment, and recrimination that cloud adoptions. Others, however, have examined the same issues more cogently and more eloquently. (Kirkus Reviews)

Review Text

For birth mothers of adopted children, Waiting to Forget will be a revelation and a comfort.

Review Quote

"[Moorman] has an artist's eye for detail and a pitch-perfect literary voice."

Details ISBN0393317838 Author Margaret Moorman Short Title WAITING TO FORGET Language English ISBN-10 0393317838 ISBN-13 9780393317831 Media Book Format Paperback Year 1998 Subtitle A Motherhood Lost and Found Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States Residence New York City, US Illustrations black & white illustrations DOI 10.1604/9780393317831 AU Release Date 1998-07-02 NZ Release Date 1998-07-02 US Release Date 1998-07-02 UK Release Date 1998-07-02 Pages 218 Publisher WW Norton & Co Publication Date 1998-07-02 Imprint WW Norton & Co DEWEY 920 Audience Undergraduate We've got this

At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it.With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love!

TheNile_Item_ID:131849498;