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A review by hnagarne
Palimpsest: Documents from a Korean Adoption by Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom
5.0
mar 2024
this memoir makes me feel so seen and i am so grateful it exists
-----
feb 2020
Like history, which is written by the winners, the adoption narrative is written by the adopters. It's often times sanitized and packaged in a neat little bow, marketed to people as simply the best thing you could do for those needy, starving children across the globe. Answer the Call to Adopt Now!
Palimpsest, written by a Korean adoptee raised in Sweden, challenges that narrative. It made me feel so seen. I devoured it in only a couple hours, thoroughly captivated by the way it expressed so many things I've felt (and feared) over the past decade or so of exploring my own identity as an adoptee. By weaving in her real adoption paperwork, emails from agencies, and other paper/electronic documents, Sjöblom offers a window into the complicated and roadblocked reality of discovering one's own past.
The artwork is beautiful and the message is clear. Adoptees are not blank slates; rather, we are something of a palimpsest. Our origins are often erased, brushed over by a shinier story, but traces of those origins still linger.
There are not many own voices books about adoption, and I'm so thankful to have been introduced to this one by people in my community.
this memoir makes me feel so seen and i am so grateful it exists
-----
feb 2020
Like history, which is written by the winners, the adoption narrative is written by the adopters. It's often times sanitized and packaged in a neat little bow, marketed to people as simply the best thing you could do for those needy, starving children across the globe. Answer the Call to Adopt Now!
Palimpsest, written by a Korean adoptee raised in Sweden, challenges that narrative. It made me feel so seen. I devoured it in only a couple hours, thoroughly captivated by the way it expressed so many things I've felt (and feared) over the past decade or so of exploring my own identity as an adoptee. By weaving in her real adoption paperwork, emails from agencies, and other paper/electronic documents, Sjöblom offers a window into the complicated and roadblocked reality of discovering one's own past.
The artwork is beautiful and the message is clear. Adoptees are not blank slates; rather, we are something of a palimpsest. Our origins are often erased, brushed over by a shinier story, but traces of those origins still linger.
There are not many own voices books about adoption, and I'm so thankful to have been introduced to this one by people in my community.