The dramatic story of one woman's determined surprising search for her birth parents and commitment to creating her own family
Janine Veto's "Unknown Bodies: Mothers Daughters and Adoption" is a brutally and beautifully honest story that begins on a Villa Park, Illinois, playground when her playmate calls her "bastard." Until then she thought being adopted was happily special. Her life had been privileged, secure and typically 1950s American: Dad, mom, brother, church on Sunday, lakeside summers in northern Wisconsin. Suddenly Veto felt she was "misplaced." The need to find her so-called "real parents" grew. It was a need that would take decades as well as drive, cunning, a little thievery and a lot of spunk. It also was a need fueled by alcohol, sex and disillusion.
Set in the arts and philanthropy worlds of Chicago and New York as well as Iowa farm country, a Denver sports bars and a Midwestern university town, it is memoir of a Boomer in search of her identity in the rapidly changing landscape of what it means to be adopted in America.
Ultimately, the message of "Unknown Bodies" is love; the unconditional love of Veto's adoptive parents, accepting and forgiving love for her broken "real parents", and the bonding love between Veto and her own adopted daughter.
Unknown Bodies
Mothers Daughters and Adoption
Table of Contents
Part One: Don´t Ask
The Dream in a Garden
The Graduate
Part Two: Subversions
The Catholics
The Family
The State
Part Three: Reunions
Six Flights Up
Fatherś Day
Heartland
Part Four: Generation
My Turn(ing)
Annunciation
Thanksgiving
Sanctuary
The Real Estate Section
Mandate of Heaven
The Middle Kingdom
Laid to Rest
Epilogue: Autumn 2017
The Blood Garden