In this Book
- All My Mothers and Fathers: A Memoir
- Book
- 2016
- Published by: West Virginia University Press
summary
Shortly after his mother dies of breast cancer when he is ten years old, Michael Blumenthal discovers that she was not his biological mother, and that his aunt and uncle, immigrant chicken farmers living in Vineland, New Jersey, are really his parents.
As fate would have it, his adoptive father, a German-Jewish refugee raised by a loveless and embittered stepmother after his own mother died in childbirth, has inflicted on his stepson a fate uncannily—and terrifyingly—similar to his own: Having first adopted Michael, in part, to help his dying wife, he then imposes on him the same sort of penurious and loveless stepmother whom he himself had had to survive. With these revelations, the "mysteries" that seem to have permeated Michael's childhood are laid bare, triggering a quest for belonging that will infiltrate the author's entire adult life.
As fate would have it, his adoptive father, a German-Jewish refugee raised by a loveless and embittered stepmother after his own mother died in childbirth, has inflicted on his stepson a fate uncannily—and terrifyingly—similar to his own: Having first adopted Michael, in part, to help his dying wife, he then imposes on him the same sort of penurious and loveless stepmother whom he himself had had to survive. With these revelations, the "mysteries" that seem to have permeated Michael's childhood are laid bare, triggering a quest for belonging that will infiltrate the author's entire adult life.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Title Page, Copyright Page
- pp. i-vi
- 1. Beginnings
- pp. 5-9
- 2. Golden Days
- pp. 10-26
- 3 The Eight Days
- pp. 27-35
- 4. Malheurs
- pp. 36-59
- 7. The Graduate
- pp. 87-109
- 8. Hallowed Halls
- pp. 110-119
- 9. Again Through New Eyes
- pp. 120-125
- 10. Rebirths
- pp. 126-144
- 11. She and I
- pp. 145-154
- 12. Kafka’s Fathers
- pp. 155-184
- Epilogue I: Haifa, Israel, December 1996
- pp. 185-188
- Postscript
- pp. 193-198
- Acknowledgments
- pp. 199-201
Additional Information
ISBN
9781943665280
Related ISBN(s)
9781943665266, 9781943665273
MARC Record
OCLC
957345203
Pages
210
Launched on MUSE
2016-08-27
Language
English
Open Access
No