From: Jane E Kurtz <jkurtz>
Date: Mon, 9 Sep 1996 20:42:00 -0500 (CDT)

THE CUCKOO'S CHILD was a book in my review pile that I kept picking up and putting back down--the cover didn't pull me in and still seems quite unappealing to me. I was spurred to read it because of this discussion, and I'm delighted that I was. I liked the book very much.

As a third culture kid--or global nomad--myself, I think Suzanne Freeman hits the varied and complex notes of that experience with perfect pitch...and it's not an easy or neat experience to try to evoke. Many of the Americans who were raised with me in Ethiopia have either chosen to to go back overseas to live or they literally didn't survive the various transplantings or they're in counseling to deal with the confusions and abandonments of their childhoods. (I write.) A common thread as I talk to people is "my parents made the commitment and choice to live overseas; it was their calling, not mine." It never occurred to me to frame the issue quite that way, but I do know the feelings of helplessness in the face of huge uprootings--and I loved getting to the end of the book and not *knowing* what had happened to Mia's parents. Because in a way it doesn't matter. What Suzanne Freeman has been able to capture is the emotional truth of the abandonment that I think lots of third culture kids feel, whether their parents actually sail off or not.

Finally, I have to admit that I was a bit taken aback by the number of people early in this conversation that didn't like Mia. I was very drawn to her--which must only say something about me! I liked her unflinching way of looking at her own unpleasantnesses and was reminded of the various scamps of my childhood books, the ones that comforted me tremendously, like Jo March and Janie Moffat and all the other girls who weren't "nice." As for Kit being the saint, I liked Kit a lot, too, but consider what Joan of Arc, say, must have been like to have for a daughter.

Jane Kurtz
Received on Mon 09 Sep 1996 08:42:00 PM CDT