Beneath a Tall Tree

"Beneath a Tall Tree: A Story About Us"

by Jean A. S. Strauss

Publisher: Areté Publishing, 2001, Paperback, 268 pages
ISBN 0-9627982-0-7

Two words immediately come to mind when I think about "Beneath a Tall Tree:" home and perseverance. Home because that's what it felt like while I was reading it, and perseverance because of the author's tenacity and dogged persistence in seeking out her personal history. [Jameson Parker also comes to mind because she mentions their family friendship in the book, but perhaps this is a generational thing.]

"Beneath a Tall Tree" is not Strauss's first book dealing with adoption. She has written several books, including one of my favorites, "Birthright: The Guide to Search and Reunion." However, her latest offering is different. "Beneath a Tall Tree" is Jean Strauss's memoir, tribute, diary, and journal of search and reunion all rolled into one. Beginning with her dad, Lou - the tallest of "trees" in her early years - and the notation:

• <--- this is me
this amazing segment of a life journey culminates in a family tree incorporating her adoptive and birth families - Italian immigrants, Civil War heroes, Mayflower descendants, and those who trace their lines directly to Charlemagne.

And it is the construction of this towering tree that provides the framework within which Strauss tells her story - at once both funny and sad, personally exclusive and inclusive, hers and ours.

She takes us from her first explorations of family (adoptive family) to the creation of her own family through marriage and parenthood, to the search for her birth family, on to the search for her birthmother's birth family, and from there to the wider search for previous generations. As these remarkable and diverse personalities are added to the tall tree, what starts out as one person's story

• <--- this is me
becomes the story of us all.

Strauss is a great narrator. And "Beneath a Tall Tree" is a great narrative.

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