Giving away Simone

by Jan L. Waldron

Jan Waldron's baby, Simone, was actually the fifth generation of women abandoned by their mothers. Determined to fight "an undertow of conditioned exiting, an affliction of easy farewells," Jan reunited with her daughter, now renamed Rebecca, when Rebecca was eleven. They spent the next thirteen years trying to get used to each other and figure out what kind of relatives they are. Giving Away Simone is Jan's account of their compelling, turbulent, maddeningly original relationship. For Jan, the looming questions are: How does she end a legacy of leaving? What does she owe Rebecca, and what...