Reviews of Crossing the Blue Willow Bridge
Looking over my notes after reading this travelogue/memoir by adoptive mom Nancy McCabe, I found myself smiling at her vivid, well-chosen examples and wry humor. She articulates as well the daily dramas, responsibilities, and revelations of parenthood, especially that of being an adoptive parent and a single parent. . . . Anyone who has been, or plans to go on a homeland trip will eat up the details of what the trip was like: the emotion, the sights, the food, and the sorts of trials that always go along with international travel. . .Her descriptions are especially evocative. Speaking of the haze in Xi’an, she says, “I can’t see the sun . . . light glimmers like a twenty-watt bulb behind a heavily frosted globe.” Throughout the trip, McCabe reflects on mother-daughter relationships, and Sophie’s impressions and thought processes as she discovers China and strengthens her bond with her heritage. . . It’s easy to find books in which parents talk lovingly about their children, but McCabe really captures these day-to-day moments which make parenting so rewarding….
McCabe has put a lot of thought into the issues she addresses in her book. She has read widely on adoption, and said that she’s uncomfortable with some of the cozy assumptions about adoption; that children are always better off with middle-class parents, that only a minority of adoptees suffer ill effects, “that internationally adopted children have been saved from terrible lives. . . .” Sometimes the book had such a sense of melancholy that I had to put it down for a bit. But I always picked it up again, drawn in by her turns of phrase, evocative scenes, and sense of pacing that kept her narrative moving along.
—Yahoo.com
Careening between disappointment and joy, ‘Crossing the Blue Willow Bridge’ is the story of two journeys woven together. One is a travelogue of the trip to China. . . the other is a memoir about parenting an adopted child. McCabe presents the journey through the lens of expectations, both her own and the culture’s, and treats their complexities with insight, humor and sensitivity….
—Lincoln Star
From the adoption community perspective, McCabe is one of us. She exercises the courage to write what the rest of us only think about our children, our relationships with them and the many nuances the adoption component adds to the family mix. . . . McCabe asks as much from the reader as she shares in this open book memoir. . . Wonderfully entertaining, serious at the right moments, sensitive and compassionate enough to give it heart, humorous and honest enough to make it real, McCabe hits another home run with this title.
—Adoption Today