The English American (Alison Larkin)
(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
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Hooray, I found the perfect airplane book. The English American by Alison Larkin eased my hours in the Albuquerque airport, keeping me going with good writing, interesting characters, humor, a story that moved quickly enough — but not too — and a satisfying ending.
Pippa Dunn worked hard to fit into her proper English family but never could seem to get it right. She knows her adoptive parents love her and she’s close to her sister but there’s just something missing. Her feeling of out-of-stepness affects her relationships with men — she only dates men nobody else wants so they won’t leave her.
At twenty-eight, she decides to find her birth parents — to give herself a sense of her biological heritage. She discovers her American mother along with an assortment of Tennessee Williams-style crazy southern relatives. And she finds the roots of her own creativy in her initially fun but deep-down dysfunctional birth mom.
The inevitable culture clash ensues along with the emotional crises. Pippa discovers her hidden strengths, rekindles a romantic fantasy and becomes the swan she always was but didn’t recognize.
Underneath the story and the humor is a lot of truth from Larkin’s own life. She was adopted, raised in England and Africa and discovers her birth mother was from the American south. Not being an adoptee, I just enjoyed the story but for those who may be struggling or have struggled with this sort of identity crisis, there’s hope and healing here, too. Sorry, that makes the book sound too therapeutic. It’s a fun read — but, then, laughter is the best medicine.