Jazz musician Steve Tucker has always known he was adopted and has spent nearly fifty years tormented by thoughts of who he is, where he came from, and whom he looks like. Like many adoptees, he embarks on a journey of discovery when he goes looking for his biological parents. His search does not lead him to the other side of the world but, instead, to a street just around the corner from where he used to live. When he eventually finds his blood mother, he has to go on a journey to an altogether unfamiliar place, far away, before he can talk to her.
Instead of the happy family image he’d had in his mind, Steve finds the tragic story of his mother’s life. A glamorous, talented and artistic model has her life taken away from her as a young woman because of a pregnancy out of wedlock. She is rejected by her family, thrown out of her home and ends up alone in a mother and baby home in London. Her child is taken from her, and she is left suffering from depression, locked in a mental asylum.
Gradually, Steve comes to terms with his mother’s life and seeks solace in the knowledge that he has inherited a number of traits from his biological family: an eccentric, flamboyant, extravagant and addictive personality from his mother and, from his father’s side, he finds he has music in his genes as his uncle had played with some of the most famous jazz musicians in the world, including Louis Armstrong.
This is a powerful and emotional story of the soul-searching of an adoptee. It explains the agony and the periods of confusion and self-destruction Steve goes through on his journey. His discovery leaves him happy and contented on what he describes as his peaceful island. Throughout his story, Steve compares adoption in the 1960s with today’s adoption process in a very personal and sometimes controversial way.
Adoptee Author: Steve Tucker
Publication Year: 2015
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