"The Problem of the Orphan Plot" + Book Giveaway!

Turning my literary axe to grind into an actual essay

If we’ve talked books in the last year, you’ve heard me moan about why there are so. many. novels. about foster care. So many! Including four of last year’s biggest books.

Across mediums, characters are so often “orphans” as a convenient way to move the plot along, provide traumatic back story, or add some extra grit.

Yet no one is talking about this. Except for me. In therapy. And thinking about it in the middle of the night.

I’m grateful I got to write about it in my first piece of cultural criticism, and my first piece for The Nation:

“Whether prime-time news or literary fiction, depictions of child welfare tend to stay on the surface level, trafficking in tropes. As a former foster youth who’s written about my time in care, I understand why. We have a vast library of caricatures to draw from: the negligent mother, the pitiable orphan, the miscreant teen, the bootstrapping overcomer.”

I pitched this piece over the course of 4 months. Then I actually had to write it and I’ve never written anything like it before. Will people be mad at me? Will famous authors think I hate their books? All of this meant a lot of midnight wake ups. But I’m proud.

I expect 10 people to read it, so if you click you will boost my stats by 10%.

Luckily, I got to write about this trend in conversation with a nonfiction book that’s a necessary corrective: Roxanna Asgarian’s We Were Once a Family.

Dude, this book is good - so, so good!! I thought I wouldn’t read because it’s depressing but then I picked it up one sleepless 3 a.m. and didn’t move until I’d finished, even though I really had to pee and was so thirsty. It reads like a thriller, wrangling intense material into coherence and was even better the 2nd read. Watch for this at awards season.

And I’m giving away two copies! All you have to do to enter is comment with your favorite thing about my review (shameless, sorry) and I’ll select 2 randomly and get your address.

Acceptance Paperback Events

Speaking of amazing journalists, I’ll be in conversation with Rachel Aviv in Brooklyn on August 3rd.

And I’ll be in conversation with Kate Doyle at the Harvard Bookstore on August 8th!

I’m terrified no one will come - so please do.

I’m at writing camp in Sewanee so pray that I don’t embarrass myself in workshop. Or cry when it’s my turn.

xoxo

Emi