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nica00's review
4.0
Art⭐️⭐️
Story⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Adoption narratives mostly focus on the glossed over happy ending stories told & controlled by adoptive parents or adoption agencies POV. But Palimpsest tells of the heartbreaking, honest, darker side of international adoption from the adoptee’s POV including the lingering emotional damage, bureaucratic red tape meant to mislead and cover up illegal or unethical activity, and the infrequent yet heartbreaking reunions that often provide no happy endings for biological families. This memoir left me sad & angry. The author words in postscript, “we deserve access to our own stories...”, will haunt my thoughts.
Story⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Adoption narratives mostly focus on the glossed over happy ending stories told & controlled by adoptive parents or adoption agencies POV. But Palimpsest tells of the heartbreaking, honest, darker side of international adoption from the adoptee’s POV including the lingering emotional damage, bureaucratic red tape meant to mislead and cover up illegal or unethical activity, and the infrequent yet heartbreaking reunions that often provide no happy endings for biological families. This memoir left me sad & angry. The author words in postscript, “we deserve access to our own stories...”, will haunt my thoughts.
priscillia's review against another edition
5.0
Lisa was adopted from Korea in the 1970s. Like many adoptees, she questions her origins and biological family, especially when she becomes a mother. When she decides to delve deeper into her history, she discovers it's far more complex than she thought. Lisa struggles to unravel the truth amid lies, contradictions, and secrets.
While the story is personal, it incorporates research and the stories of other adoptees. The noble image of adoption is deconstructed in "Palimpsest," which reveals the corruption within the international adoption industry. It's crucial to hear the voices of adoptees who are often silenced because their stories don't align with the international adoption narrative.
While the story is personal, it incorporates research and the stories of other adoptees. The noble image of adoption is deconstructed in "Palimpsest," which reveals the corruption within the international adoption industry. It's crucial to hear the voices of adoptees who are often silenced because their stories don't align with the international adoption narrative.
haley_radke's review
5.0
This unique and gorgeous graphic memoir was one of my favourite reads of 2020. I love her style of drawing characters, and the cover is one of the most brilliant layered pieces of art I've ever seen. The title "Palimpsest" is such a perfect name for the layers that Lisa uncovers as she searches for identity as a Korean adoptee. Loved following the story, the attention to detail, and the accurate depiction of what search and reunion can really look like for adopted people.
lucysmom828's review
5.0
So often in adoptions the focus is on the newly created family unit, and the first families are forgotten (or entirely ignored). Lisa talks about her journey coping with being adopted and trying to find her natural parents. This graphic memoir takes an honest look at international adoptions, describing how it is a form of child trade and how manipulation and lies are involved in each case. When trying to learn about their natural parents and where they came from, adoptees encounter falsified documents and gas-lighting by those who run the organizations (if they're even able to get a response). You experience this firsthand as Lisa takes you along with her on a journey to find her natural parents. It's heart-wrenching to witness everything that she has gone through, but it is so important to shed a light on what so many individuals are up against. This is necessary reading for everyone, but especially those who are likely to ask about someone's family history (such as medical professionals). We need to know what these individuals are facing and how to appropriately address it.
estam1's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.25
kricketa's review
4.0
Lisa Wool-Rim Sjoblom, raised in Sweden by an adoptive family, wrote and illustrated this comic about trying to find information on her birth in Korea. She challenges that assumption that adopted children only search for their biological families if they are dissatisfied with their adoptive parents, pointing out that one does not necessarily have a lot to do with the other. She points out that expecting adoptive children to feel only one emotion (grateful!) is dehumanizing. She also writes in detail about how difficult the adoption agencies made it for her to find information that, in the end, was readily available, by lying or doing nothing at all.
A lot of this was difficult to read, because Sjoblom's pain and frustration is very real, and ultimately the answers she finds do not ease her pain and frustration as much as one might have wished. But as she also points out, a lot of literature about adoption paints a very rosy picture of orphans being saved from a terrible life rather than the reality, which can be complicated and even in some cases corrupt when parents are allowed to essentially purchase children that were never legally given up. So it seems important to witness stories like this one. Also, I really really like the style of her artwork.
Sjoblom was so often told that her search for the basic details of her birth was selfish, inconsiderate, self-indulgent, etc, by people who had never been in her situation. This calls to mind some reactions to the book "Inheritance" by Dani Shapiro that criticize Shapiro for being traumatized when she found out she had been conceived by a sperm donor. Even though the difficult emotions seem to stem more from the act of having been lied to all her life then the actual fact of her parenthood, some readers perceive her trauma as a direct insult to anyone who lives a happy life without knowing all the details of their biological parentage. But this is a tangent. Anyway.
From the postscript: "We deserve access to our own stories and to speak with our own voices...no matter how we sound or what we say."
A lot of this was difficult to read, because Sjoblom's pain and frustration is very real, and ultimately the answers she finds do not ease her pain and frustration as much as one might have wished. But as she also points out, a lot of literature about adoption paints a very rosy picture of orphans being saved from a terrible life rather than the reality, which can be complicated and even in some cases corrupt when parents are allowed to essentially purchase children that were never legally given up. So it seems important to witness stories like this one. Also, I really really like the style of her artwork.
Sjoblom was so often told that her search for the basic details of her birth was selfish, inconsiderate, self-indulgent, etc, by people who had never been in her situation. This calls to mind some reactions to the book "Inheritance" by Dani Shapiro that criticize Shapiro for being traumatized when she found out she had been conceived by a sperm donor. Even though the difficult emotions seem to stem more from the act of having been lied to all her life then the actual fact of her parenthood, some readers perceive her trauma as a direct insult to anyone who lives a happy life without knowing all the details of their biological parentage. But this is a tangent. Anyway.
From the postscript: "We deserve access to our own stories and to speak with our own voices...no matter how we sound or what we say."
n_nazir's review against another edition
4.0
I’m not really a graphic novel reader but the story is so compelling that I couldn’t tear through it fast enough.
mim72's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Racism