The Russian Word for Snow - Book Review
A True Story of Adoption 
The Russian Word for Snow:
A True Story of Adoptionby Janis Cooke Newman
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 0312252145
[Review of advance copy]
I don't know when a book has gotten me so upset along
with the author and
because of the author at the same time.
In
The Russian Word for Snow, Janis Cooke Newman tells her own story, one punctuated with humor, wry insightfulness, and painful honesty. It is the story of the journey she and her husband embarked upon that culminated in the adoption of their son, Alex, from a Russian orphanage (which originally named him for the Russian word for snow, hence the title) - a journey that begins with attempts to conceive a child using methods approached with logic and those grasped at in desperation: machinations and manipulations that sound like something advertised in sleazy magazines.
For those who have never had fertility or pregnancy problems, solutions like the "urine of post-menopausal nuns" bring a hoot of laughter; for those who have raced or been dragged, along with the Newmans, to every practitioner of every traditional, alternative, and flat-out bizarre treatment, the pursuit of a fertile moment may also bring laughter, but only because the author has managed to capture the humor that comes with hindsight. They know how un-funny the reality can be.
The Newman's adoption story reads like a steeplechase - those open-country horse races run at full speed, filled with seemingly never-ending hurdles. They survive the dreadfully frightening first medical evaluations of the child who is to become their son, the ineptitude of a novice US facilitator, and the arrogance of a shifty Russian middleman, only to end up caught in the uncertainty and unrest in Russia preceding the Yeltsin election. As their stay in Russia drags out to almost a month, their finances dwindle. Their questions of
"when" and
"how much longer" go unanswered. Flareups of frustration and anger become more frequent. And the only thing that keeps them going is a small boy with a crooked smile, named for snow.
Newman relates what many adoptive parents express: an almost spiritual connection with a child that forms from just a brief glimpse. A sense of
knowing this child will be part of their family long before any possibility that this might be the case is confirmed. Attending an adoption presentation, she sees a video. She writes,
"I could not pull away from the dark eyes Maggie had thought so much like mine, and I felt a pressure in my chest, as though my heart had become too large for the space that contained it." She takes the video from one evaluation specialist to the next, listening to their discouraging words, terrible medical terms for what might be causing that crooked smile, the lack of responsiveness,
knowing they're wrong. And then she finds a doctor who sees what she sees.
Next page >
What do you see? > Page 1,
2
Home
Add Your Comments!
We want to know what you think. Your comments are important to us and the other readers. You are what makes this site special.