Pedestrian View

My friend Kathy Fahrion, a great recommender of books, placed this in my hands one day last fall, saying I had to read it. Forever Lilly is Beth Nonte Russell’s memoir of an adoption trip to China, and Kathy, I’m glad I read it.

To be honest, I started it once and laid it aside because it didn’t grab me. Russell sprinkles her adoption narrative with a series of dream sequences that eventually lay out a parallel story set in feudal China. The whole “dream” seemed too Disney to me, like I was reading the first draft of Mulan.

Recently I picked it up again, and it grabbed me when Russell finally meets the baby. Her description of the plight of Chinese orphans, particularly females, is compelling. I have a better understanding of the conditions there for millions of babies, and Russell tells a good story. The details of her first adoption, given the fact that she originally set out as a spectator, are fascinating.

The whole understory that supposes that she’s playing out an unfinished drama from feudal China is still a bit much for me to swallow, but the last two thirds of the book were a great read.