Read Jean Paton and the Struggle to Reform American Adoption E Wayne Carp 9780472036776 Books

Product details Paperback 432 pages Publisher University of Michigan Press; Reprint edition (October 4, 2016) Language English ISBN-10 0472036777

Jean Paton and the Struggle to Reform American Adoption E Wayne Carp 9780472036776 Books Reviews

• Finally a great lady is recognized for her life long work in calling attention to the plight of people lost in adoption. Her work is invaluable to understanding the whole adoption consequences.
  I am glad I waited for this book. Thank you, Mr. Carp
• Jean Paton was a remarkably complicated yet endearing woman. It is much too simple to say Jean actively corresponded with me as I began in 1976 the first organization in the world to support and advocate for birthparents Concerned United Birthparents, Inc. (CUB). As I suggest in my own memoir ("Cast Off"), Jean's correspondence with me consumed reams of typewritten pages and spanned several years -- but her efforts weren't limited to encouragement. Jean also let me know, emphatically, when she disagreed with something I said or did, whether it was in my personal or my new organization's life. And, as precisely as her convoluted prose would allow, she told me what I should do to better align myself with her views, even while admitting her opinions were in shift. It was hard for me to get enough traction to walk in solid step with Jean. Yet, as exasperating as she was (a point of Paton pride, I think), Jean was also a darling (I can feel the ground quake under me as she rolls over in her grave at that "sticky sweet" assessment).
  
  Like many self-aware adoptees, Jean wasn't sure she measured up, that she was worthy of being taken seriously, and, perhaps, as a self-fulfilling prophecy, she too often was not. A lesser leader would have retreated (I admit I did!). While Jean sometimes threatened to do just that, she nevertheless continued her reform work, one long decade after another.
  
  As for author Wayne Carp, he certainly had his work cut out for him as he waded through tons of Jean's personal archives to write this book. He must have bumped along one current of Jean's thoughts only to be swept into another opposing channel. How to organize the book must have left Wayne sleepless many nights. I know for a fact he devoted years to this project. But Wayne, like Jean, didn't give up.
  
  The result is a book that is a tour de force. And, nothing less could do Jean justice, for, in my mind, Jean Paton will always be the grand dame of adoption reform, a kind of unsinkable Molly Brown.
• Jean Paton was the first adoptee to write a book about adoption, the first to start an adoption support group and a wonderful friend. Her book is a must read for anyone wishing to understand the the challenges faced by adopted people wishing to change the way adoption works in the United States