Other People's Children: A Novel

by Jeff Hoffmann

Paperback, 2021

Status

Available

Call number

FIC HOF

Call number

FIC HOF

Description

"A riveting debut novel about a couple whose dream of adopting a baby is shattered when the teenage mother reclaims her child"--

Publication

Simon & Schuster (2021), 384 pages

Original publication date

2021

Original language

English

Language

User reviews

LibraryThing member Twink
Other People's Children is R.J. Hoffmann's debut novel.

What's it about? This is the lead line in the Simon and Schuster's description (so, not a spoiler from me!) "A riveting debut novel about a couple whose dream of adopting a baby is shattered when the teenage mother reclaims her child."

With
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that descriptor, I knew what I would be reading about, but intuited it wouldn't be a straight forward tale. Other People's Children is based on that premise, but it is the characters that are the focus of the book. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of Hoffmann's characterizations.

Hoffman explores generations of parenting, different takes on parenting, what it means to be a parent, parenting styles, the repercussions of childhood through the points of view of prospective parents Gail and Jon, pregnant teen Carli, her mother Marla and adoption agent Paige. As the reader is outside looking in, it is easier to see each each player's perception and give credence to their mindsets and emotions. But as the book progressed, I became biased and knew the outcome I wanted for Other People's Children. I think each reader's own experience will shape their hope for the ending.

Hoffmann is a talented writer and his prose are quite beautiful. I admit, I was initially surprised that a male author was writing a book with mothers as the main characters. Could he actually capture their thoughts and actions? I thought he did a pretty good job of it, but found Marla to be too much of a caricature. I wonder if this book took some inspiration from his own life?

Prospective readers, this is a slow burning, thoughtful novel. It does speed up close to the end with a dramatic turn of events, although I did find the final pages to be a bit predictable.
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LibraryThing member porte01
What is true parental love - in its purest form - and what is actually narcissism, loneliness, vanity, fear of the emptiness left by our own unfulfilled parenting? Does it matter why we love our children as long as we do? What does it take to spin this love into the fabric of a family? How far are
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we willing to go to preserve our families, however tenuous those links may sometimes feel ?

The characters in this lovely book grapple with those very questions, (some of them with more self-awareness than others).

- Gail and Jon, a thirty-something professional couple in Illinois, who, after several miscarriages, have lost all hope of conceiving a child, - a fact which has settled its dull weight over their marriage, obscuring their feeling of the “rightness” of their lives, crushing their ability to take comfort in each other.

- Carli, an isolated and insecure eighteen year old who is pregnant and fears she is not ready to face the thought of motherhood.

- Marla, Carli’s bitter, vindictive and tough-as-nails mother, who has alienated her own grown children, and longs for a chance to try again.

- Paige, a greying hippie social worker, the only major character who at first appears to have no real emotional parental axe to grind. Paige does her best to remain objective and tries to do the right thing for all.

The plot takes off when Carli’s baby is born - eight pounds of sweetness, with cheeks like “rose petals and suede” - and not unexpectedly, what little emotional balance each of the family-seeking-protagonists has been struggling to maintain now topples completely, triggering an avalanche of desperate and ethically questionable behavior.

Beautifully written, this modern morality tale weaves itself into your heart - allowing these characters to get under your skin until you care for them, feel with them, and can (almost) understand the lengths they are willing to go through to fill the gaping holes that their own flawed childhoods have left each of them struggling with.

I loved this book, (and found myself wanting to hug and kiss my children just a little bit longer upon completing it).

A great big thank you to the author for a review copy of this novel. All thoughts presented are my own.
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LibraryThing member rmarcin
Jon and Gail have been trying for years to have a child, but without success. They finally are chosen by a young girl, Carli, to be the parents to her baby. Prior to Carli signing the final commitment papers, Carli's mother pressures her to reclaim the child. Jon and Gail turn to desperate measures
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to try to keep the baby girl, Maya. This whole book was tragic, with a small glimmer of hope at the end. I despised Marla, Carli's mother, and her language was a bit over the top, but not surprising.
This was hard to read because I have many friends who have successfully adopted children and have given the children a wonderful life. Carli had many obstacles ahead of her if she was to raise the child on her own.
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LibraryThing member whitreidtan
Parenthood. Some people become parents biologically while others become parents through adoption. Some people are amazing parents while others really struggle. What makes a parent? And perhaps more importantly, what makes a good parent as versus a bad parent? Is it love? Is it some other
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intangible?

Gail and Jon Durbin are beaten down by Gail's repeated miscarriages. They have arranged their whole lives to welcome a child, buying a house in the suburbs and setting up a nursery but the one thing they can't arrange is a pregnancy that doesn't end in loss and heartbreak. Gail is obsessive about becoming a mother while Jon, remembering his own childhood, is far more ambivalent about fatherhood. After much soul searching though, they decide to adopt. But this is one more process in creating a family that they don't have much control over.

Carli is a pregnant teenager living a couple of towns away. She doesn't have a relationship with the father of her baby any more and she's pretty sure she's not ready to be anyone's mother, especially given the poor role model she has in her own mother, Marla. She wants to go to college and escape her mother and the unhappy life they live. So she decides to give the baby up for adoption and she chooses Gail and Jon to be the baby's parents. Their dreams are coming true even while Marla pressures Carli to keep her baby, thinking perhaps that she can atone for her own failings as a mother by helping raise her grandbaby. What happens to Gail and Jon's dreams if Carli listens to Marla and changes her mind? Who actually is little Maya's family? What lengths will any of them go to to keep this baby?

This novel is both a domestic story about infertility and adoption as well as an on the run thriller. The narration shifts through each of the main characters so that the reader can sympathize with each of them, their hopes, dreams, fears, and motivations. There are right actions and wrong actions here but there's such a moral ambiguity that there's no clear and easy answer. Everyone is right and everyone is wrong. The story is an emotionally packed page turner, heartbreaking and tragic all the way round. If want and love makes a mother, both Gail and Carli are clearly mothers but only one of them can be Maya's mother. Carli's mother Marla is really the only clear villain here. The ending is a bit too perfect and hopeful after the wild ride that comes before it but overall Hoffmann has written an engrossing and moving story about love, adoption, parenthood, and ethics.
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ISBN

978-1-9821-5909-2 / 9781982159092
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