Cassandra Jackson attempts to unearth her lost family, while also creating a new one--only to discover little progress separates the past from the present. As she moves back and forth between her girlhood and her journey to motherhood, Jackson reveals the chilling parallels between the harrowing inhumanity of Jim Crow medical care and the toxic discrimination that undergirds healthcare in the United States today.
Jackson deftly intertwines the story of her search for the truth about "the wreck" with her infertility struggle ... Along with the trauma of her family’s past, racism shadows every corner of her narrative ... Jackson had feared her search for answers might cause her wounded father pain; in the end, it shines a healing light.
Passionate ... An account at once individual and universal ... Her surreal experiences in various fertility clinics add dark comedy ... Jackson arrives at what might be called wisdom.
Intimate and candid ... The author creates vivid portraits of her stoic, irreverent, and warmhearted father; her judgmental, pragmatic mother; and her supremely patient and loving husband ... A perceptive memoir about race, love, and legacy
