Memoir Review: Inheritance

Book By Book

Like everyone else, I have been hearing about Dani Shapiro’s best-selling book, Inheritance: A Memoir About Genealogy, Paternity, and Love, ever since its release in January this year. So, when one of my favorite podcasts, Happier with Gretchen Rubin, chose the book as its first book group selection AND one of my own local book groups chose it for this spring, I made time to read it. This unique story of discovering a shocking secret about your family – and yourself – in your 50′s kept me rapt.

Dani opens the book by describing what happened when, in a rush to leave for a trip, she and her husband took a quick peek at newly delivered genetic results from Ancestry.com, and her life was forever changed. Dani grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household, with both a Jewish mother and father. Her parents had died, but – like us all – they had both left an indelible impact on her life and her identity. So, when her genetic results clearly stated that Dani was slightly less than 50% Jewish, she was stunned and assumed it must be a mistake. It was no mistake. Through the magic of the internet and with her husband’s help, Dani discovered over the course of mere days that the father that she grew up with was not actually her biological father, and (somewhat miraculously) tracked down the man who had donated sperm anonymously to a fertility clinic as a medical student over 50 years ago. Dani’s whole world was turned upside down, as everything she thought she knew about herself and her family seemed to be a lie. Slowly, she pieced together the story of what had happened so long ago, talked to family members, and began to come to terms with this life-changing news.

Throughout this fascinating and incredible memoir, Dani slowly unravels the truth and brings the reader along for the ride. She remembers bits of her childhood that never made sense before (such as how people often commented that blond, blue-eyed Dani couldn’t possibly be Jewish), struggles to reconcile the life and father she lived with versus the truth she has discovered, and slowly – very slowly – begins to put her life back together. I was riveted by this incredible true story. Dani, a well-respected author of both memoir and fiction, is a wonderful writer, and her story is both compelling and thoughtful. This is an excellent choice for book groups, and we had some interesting and in-depth conversations about Dani’s musings on family, fatherhood, and identity.

272 pages, Knopf

Listen to a sample of the audio book, read compellingly by the author. It’s even more powerful to hear her read her own words aloud.