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78 reviews for:
The Foundling: The True Story of a Kidnapping, a Family Secret, and My Search for the Real Me
Paul Joseph Fronczak
3.61 AVERAGE
78 reviews for:
The Foundling: The True Story of a Kidnapping, a Family Secret, and My Search for the Real Me
Paul Joseph Fronczak
3.61 AVERAGE
The Foundling by Paul Fronczak is a free NetGalley ebook that I read in late February.
What began as a tragic, dramatic real-life story (a newborn baby boy kidnapped by a woman posing nurse, while another baby boy is abandoned in a pram in front of a high-price metropolitan department store) turns into a series of rhetorical questions, missed opportunities, philosophical turning points, conflicting family records, false starts, hunches, and dead ends in genetic research.
What began as a tragic, dramatic real-life story (a newborn baby boy kidnapped by a woman posing nurse, while another baby boy is abandoned in a pram in front of a high-price metropolitan department store) turns into a series of rhetorical questions, missed opportunities, philosophical turning points, conflicting family records, false starts, hunches, and dead ends in genetic research.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
This true story is pretty fascinating but the writing is just so-so. There are a lot of superfluous details that didn't add anything to the story and a lot of information about how genealogical research works which is probably important for other readers but I didn't need. Overall though it was still a page turner for me to see where the story went.
This book really annoyed me. I get that is life started out bad but he had a family that loved him and he was so self centered, he cared about nobody else but himself. He forced them to relive the kidnapping how many years later.
The fact that he continued to push his blood family to be in his life is frustrating. Just because he is interested in learning about them he should respect that clearly they are not.
He just came across as a selfish child. One of my least favorite books.
The fact that he continued to push his blood family to be in his life is frustrating. Just because he is interested in learning about them he should respect that clearly they are not.
He just came across as a selfish child. One of my least favorite books.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Excellent story. My family also has an adoption story - my mother was adopted out as a baby in the 1930s. We have recently learned that she was fostered for the first 2 years of her life before finally being adopted. Fortunately my mothers story was not as bad as Pauls story. She and I both did a DNA test, and luckily we found some cousin matches already in the databases so we were able to get some answers fairly fast. I give this story 4.5 stars. It was well written, and kept my attention. It is sad that Paul has not yet been able to learn what happened to his twin sister. It is good to know that the real Paul Fronczak has been found - but he chooses not to be publicly identified - which is of course his right.
emotional
slow-paced
Wild tale. Obviously wish it could have led to more resolution, but that’s life, I suppose. I could see the self reflected was in Fronzak’s decisions as he wrote about them, but some parts of me wondered if he was just saying these things to get readers to empathize with him.
I was super fascinated by this true story, though, and I think it was really influential to me in explaining just how much one needs their identity defined before they can fully exist in the world.
I was super fascinated by this true story, though, and I think it was really influential to me in explaining just how much one needs their identity defined before they can fully exist in the world.
A Sad, but Fascinating Story
This was a breath taking page turner. Some of us are interested in the history of our family, the success of genealogy websites is testament to that. But what happens when you don't know who they are, and who you yourself are?I
This book tells the story of Paul Fronczak, and his long and difficult search for his real family, and also the search for the real Paul Fronczak, the abducted baby of his adoptive parents. What he discovers are two separate stories, both sad but bittersweet. It's difficult to say too much without telling the story, so that's best left for others to discover for themselves.
I recommend this book for anyone searching for their own identity as here is a book which may help to put things into perspective. It's a good read, and I couldn't put it down, falling asleep while reading explains this well!
This was a breath taking page turner. Some of us are interested in the history of our family, the success of genealogy websites is testament to that. But what happens when you don't know who they are, and who you yourself are?I
This book tells the story of Paul Fronczak, and his long and difficult search for his real family, and also the search for the real Paul Fronczak, the abducted baby of his adoptive parents. What he discovers are two separate stories, both sad but bittersweet. It's difficult to say too much without telling the story, so that's best left for others to discover for themselves.
I recommend this book for anyone searching for their own identity as here is a book which may help to put things into perspective. It's a good read, and I couldn't put it down, falling asleep while reading explains this well!
In 1964, in a Chicago USA maternity hospital, a nurse went through the ward checking babies faces. She didn't speak until she was finished then she went back, picked up baby Paul Joseph Fronczak, told his mother the paediatrician wanted to examine him, walked out of the ward and out of the hospital. Despite a huge manhunt, the 'nurse' was never seen again and baby was neither returned nor recovered.
Fourteen months later, halfway across the country, a toddler boy was abandoned on a well to do street outside a shop entrance. After some time it was announced that he was the missing baby Paul Fronczak. But Paul never felt 'at home' in his family although he knew his parents loved him. Nearly 50 years later, after the birth of his own child, Paul took a DNA test and began the search for his 'true' identity.
I listened to the Audible version which was 11 hours 24 min. It did drag in sections, especially in the early sections where Paul was recounting the history the lead up to his discoveries with little about his own reactions. But it is an amazing potboiler on it's own. It was absolutely worth holding on though because there were sections that literally made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I struggled with the technology (I kept having skips) and the reader's voice at times, but it didn't stop me from being engrossed in the story.
If you've ever done your family tree, enjoyed Who Do You Think You Are, love detailed detective work, or just like biographies, this book is for you!! It asks What makes identity? What makes family? It has history, mystery and great detective work, success and failure, joy and pain, love and sorrow. You will make judgements, rethink them and make them again.
I'd never heard any of this story before and can understand how it changed hospital procedures such as leading to hand and footprints of newborns being required. I have spent decades working professionally with kids and adolescents who have PTSD and/or are in foster care, and their families, and so much of this story should be prescribed reading for professionals. Even though Paul was placed in a safe and loving home as a toddler and loved his parents and was loved by them, that did not stop him from being affected by what went before. And you can see the effect that it had on his whole life.
The one critique that I have is that there is a strong and unwarranted emphasis on genetic explanations for behaviour. At the time of writing this book Paul clearly has little understanding of the consequences of Attachment Disorder and PTSD and how these become generational issues. He wrote this book in great part to assist others who may be in the similar situations to his. To them I would say, Paul would have been greatly helped by therapy. Get help, as some of the difficulties Paul faced in this book could have been avoided with appropriate professional assistance. Do not try to do this journey alone.
Fourteen months later, halfway across the country, a toddler boy was abandoned on a well to do street outside a shop entrance. After some time it was announced that he was the missing baby Paul Fronczak. But Paul never felt 'at home' in his family although he knew his parents loved him. Nearly 50 years later, after the birth of his own child, Paul took a DNA test and began the search for his 'true' identity.
I listened to the Audible version which was 11 hours 24 min. It did drag in sections, especially in the early sections where Paul was recounting the history the lead up to his discoveries with little about his own reactions. But it is an amazing potboiler on it's own. It was absolutely worth holding on though because there were sections that literally made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I struggled with the technology (I kept having skips) and the reader's voice at times, but it didn't stop me from being engrossed in the story.
If you've ever done your family tree, enjoyed Who Do You Think You Are, love detailed detective work, or just like biographies, this book is for you!! It asks What makes identity? What makes family? It has history, mystery and great detective work, success and failure, joy and pain, love and sorrow. You will make judgements, rethink them and make them again.
I'd never heard any of this story before and can understand how it changed hospital procedures such as leading to hand and footprints of newborns being required. I have spent decades working professionally with kids and adolescents who have PTSD and/or are in foster care, and their families, and so much of this story should be prescribed reading for professionals. Even though Paul was placed in a safe and loving home as a toddler and loved his parents and was loved by them, that did not stop him from being affected by what went before. And you can see the effect that it had on his whole life.
The one critique that I have is that there is a strong and unwarranted emphasis on genetic explanations for behaviour. At the time of writing this book Paul clearly has little understanding of the consequences of Attachment Disorder and PTSD and how these become generational issues. He wrote this book in great part to assist others who may be in the similar situations to his. To them I would say, Paul would have been greatly helped by therapy. Get help, as some of the difficulties Paul faced in this book could have been avoided with appropriate professional assistance. Do not try to do this journey alone.