Assessment:
Plot/Idea: Jones capably retells her life events, particularly those from her youth that shaped her adulthood. The narrative is clear and adheres to a logical progression, and readers will feel compelled to immerse themselves into Jones's experiences.
Prose: Jones is able to evoke sympathy in readers for herself as a young child who, adopted as an infant, always felt like she didn't measure up. Her isolation and insecurity are palpable, and she writes in candid, sometimes stark, prose that plunges readers into her world.
Originality: Dr. Beare's Daughter boasts uniquely idiosyncratic characters who come alive in Jones's skilled hands.
Character/Execution: Jones excels at characterization; her younger self in particular is sharply defined, making readers want to console and validate her in contrast to the adults in her life.
Date Submitted: October 01, 2024
"Well-written and poignant, Janice Jones tells the story of her childhood as Dr. Beare’s Daughter. Within it are feelings and experiences to which many adoptees of her generation and beyond can relate. She writes words she never would have uttered as an adoptee growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in a privileged family in small-town Ohio. She effectively dives below the surface and displays her inner voice in her writing. What does it mean to fit in? Janice longs for nurturing and understanding, and while she finds it with select people, for instance, her grandfather, she struggles with her place with her parents often feeling like an accessory or possession rather than the kinship she longs for. The book left me as the reader wanting to see how subsequent years and events unfolded as Janice inevitably went on to continue to explore her identity. I recommend this engaging book and look forward to more from Janice Jones."
"Jones, adopted as an infant by wealthy parents in a small Midwestern town in 1947, spotlights a life lived under her father’s shadow in this emotive memoir. Her earliest memories are of her mother reading “The Book”—a story of orphans at “the Home” being adopted by a married couple—while Jones tries to make sense of what it means to be “chosen.” She reflects on feeling out of place all too often, in her father’s way with constant questions and forced to entertain herself, given her socialite mother’s busy schedule.
Jones’s constant sense of not measuring up to her father—an influential doctor in their tight-knit community—colors her confidence from a young age: “being Doctor Beare’s Daughter is better than being just Janice,” she reassures her younger self. A lack of siblings and friends widens those feelings of isolation, and her childhood musings—whether about fishing trips with her father, school days, or simple family dinners—continually reflect her efforts to make sense of her place in this golden family. As she grows, Jones’s voice morphs from that of an innocent, credulous child to young adulthood, mirroring her rising awareness of the need to break away from her parents’ world to form her own.
Jones supplements the narrative with childhood pictures that anchor the memoir’s events, allowing whispers of nostalgia to invade the stark portrayal of her early days. Many of her early experiences are punctuated by her father’s temper and angry words, hurled at Jones and her mother in accusations of their ignorance—sections that are painful to read but balanced by Jones’s sweet relationship with her grandfather. As she grows into an adult, and has children of her own, Jones contemplates the pieces of her family she still carries with her, and, in a heart wrenching ending, learns, finally, that she is her own person—and that is enough.
Takeaway: Moving story of an adopted daughter’s search for her own voice."
"...brutally honest ... a compelling work ... a power coming-of-age story about life as an adoptee. Recommended. GET IT"
