Title: I Must Have Wandered: An Adopted Air Force Daughter Recalls
Author: Mary Ellen Gambutti
Genre: Creative Nonfiction Memoir
Book Blurb:
In this vivid hybrid memoir--a lyrical collage of vignettes, vintage and contemporary correspondence and photos--the author illuminates her Post-World War11 South Carolina birth, relinquishment, adoption, and childhood through the turbulent 1960s. She defines the barriers to her identity set by adoption law, her adoptive father's Air Force Intelligence career, family transience, and religious fervency. At forty, she begins to gather fragments of her biological heritage in this heartfelt story of loss, a quest for identity, recovery of self, and reunion.
(Adoptee resources are included)
Excerpt:
“...Adoptees mourn both tangible and intangible losses, I’ve learned, like the baby who was left behind, the loss of the mother who disappeared, or again when she dies, whether or not we find her. We grieve the persons we might have been had we not been relinquished and the siblings we might have known. All of it matters to adoptees.
I’ve dreamed of phantoms—others. I am here. Where are you? None of my adoptive family members are like me in face or feature. I tell my playground friends, “They aren’t my real parents. I have another mother.” Not this mother. Another one. I hear myself tell them, and as I do, I deepen my thoughts. I ruminate, through this filter of myth, miracle, and mystery, a notion that I appeared from nowhere. In my teens, I would daydream that a sister or a brother—real family—would pass me in a department store, and we would recognize each other. In Sears, by the popcorn machine, I see a girl who looks like me. I stare at her. I look away. Does she recognize me? Does anyone see me?...”
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/IMustHaveWandered
Amazon: $2.99
Goodreads:
What makes your featured book a must-read?
November is National Adoptee Awareness Month and National Adoption Awareness Month. (NAAM)
"Gambutti narrates the complicated journey to restoring her identity after adoption...readers will be enlightened by Gambutti's portrayal of an adoptee's pervasive feelings of loss, impermanence, and abandonment. The book will be of special interest to adoptees, but all readers will benefit from the wisdom of her experience, and her devout pursuit of self-knowledge."-- Self-Publishing Review
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Author Biography:
Mary Ellen Gambutti's lyrical vignettes are rich and diverse, reflecting her post WW11 South Carolina birth, relinquishment, and adoption, her 1950s and '60s childhood, the consequences of military family separation and transience on an adoptee, and her quest for family of origin. At age 58, she survived a hemorrhagic stroke. Her personal essays are published in many literary journals. She lives in Lewes, Delaware.
Social Media Links:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maryelleng.author/
Website: https://megam-author.com