Perspective

The book is written in first person from the perspective of the author, Michael Dorris, who adopts three Indian children, including one with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. The person who expects this to be a book only about Michael's adoption of Adam and their lives together will be disappointed. In reality, Michael spends a great deal more time focusing on the condition, Fetal Alcohol Syndome, its causes and effects on children, families and society as a whole. In fact, Michael glosses over a great deal of his life so that the reader has only a vague sense of the trials and frustrations that are part of everyday life for this family. There is a foreward by Michael's wife, Louise Erdrich, that seems clearer on the point of the difficulties faced by Adam's family. Louise tells of a scene at the dinner table in which Adam, a young teenager, refuseds...