3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
The Bond is the (auto)biographical story of Michael Grotticelli, his three biological siblings and five foster siblings. It is the story of their triumph over adversity and their struggle to find the kind of family love that many of us take for granted.
The author begins with the background stories of his parents and grandparents. This brings depth and perspective to his points of view throughout the book and reveals how and why he was placed in foster care. The book continues by following Michael through his time in an orphanage, his years in a foster home and his adult life. The focus is on his time as a foster son and the lasting relationships that formed between all of the siblings living with his foster parents, the Nelsons. It also includes all of their stories before he came to know them. As someone who really enjoys biographies, I loved reading about all of these people who played a part in the author's life and learning about how they all came to live under the same roof.
This is a book about real people, real lives and real feelings. As such, it is full of ups, downs and contradictions. Michael and his siblings yearned to be returned to their family, no matter how dysfunctional and destructive their parental relationships were. They held on to the dream of family love with their foster parents, even when pushed away. Michael has times of real happiness in his childhood amidst times of real distress and bitter disappointment. Events and people are described in thoughtful ways, allowing for a deep understanding of what was being experienced and felt. Non fiction can sometimes fall flat in this area, reading as a factual list of events, but that was not the case here. It's a reminder that everybody has a story and whether we like it or not, we are shaped in profound ways by our childhood experiences.
At times it was difficult to understand the author's point of view. I would find myself confused about whether or not the memory he was describing was a positive one. I would think "that doesn't sound so bad" or "there's nothing wrong with parenting in that way". His reflections in the final chapters reconciled all of this for me, making for a satisfying end. In fact, the final portion of the book includes the kind of personal reflection and self awareness that I most enjoy when reading non fiction. It was a nice balance to the background stories at the beginning, giving the reader an overall perspective of where Michael and his siblings came from, what they lived through and who they came to be.
I found that some of the phrasing was awkward and noticed a few grammatical errors including mixed verb tenses and repeated or misplaced words. For example "...but now she was now prone to ..." and "I'm not sure why not one of Cosmo's four brothers...". This did distract me from the content and occasionally interrupted my reading flow.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys biographies and particularly anyone who has a non traditional family structure or grew up in the foster system. The occasionally awkward wording and errors keep me from giving this book a perfect rating but if it were allowed, I would have held back only one half star. I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars.
******
The Bond
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Elaine5's review? Post a comment saying so!
