"American Bastard dares and succeeds at reimaging and redefining memoir as a genre where stream of consciousness meets essay, meets magical realism, meets reportage, meets poetry to create an epic mosaic only possible through the literary genius of Jan Beatty. And as if that weren’t enough, an enthralling yet gracious exposé about adoption that confronts and educates us through a voice that is at times tender and broken, at times angry and fierce, but always unflinchingly honest with herself, the people in her life, and her readers." —Richard Blanco, author of The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Memoir“I don’t think I’ve ever read abook like this one. I hadn’t known some live haunted by their own blood ghosts.It will be medicine for those wounded by their own births and illuminating foranyone who thought they understood notions of home and kin. It’s as if Beatty’slived homesick for herself. AmericanBastard is as brutal and beautiful as Beatty’s poetry. A surgery of theself. Precise and invasive, exploratory and celebratory, debilitating andtransformational.” —Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street and A House of My Own: Stories from My Life "Jan Beatty’s American Bastard starts with athreat—with razorlike prose, she backs you up against the wall of your naïveassumptions. A monumental work of wild innovative storytelling, whollyoriginal, American Bastard would beunbearable in its pain were it not rendered with such exquisite craft andbeauty. As a reader, you’re either in or out; I suggest you stay in for one ofthe decade’s premier memoirs." —Sapphire, author of Push and The Kid"American Bastard has it all: dazzling craft, a resonant story,and an unflinching honesty, the essential ingredient transforming a work into awork of art. This deep dive into the emotional world of an adoptee and herstruggle to find the missing and unresolved parts of herself left behind on theday of her adoption is at once disturbing and hypnotic. American Bastardis a balancing act, a hybrid work blending prose and poetry that threatens tounravel on the page as the author searches for her history, her identity, andher place in the world." —Nikki Moustaki, author of The Bird Market of Paris"[A] blend of narrative and poetry that doubles as a searing critique of adoption culture in America." —90.5 WESA"American Bastard is a powerful memoir by Jan Beatty, sure to draw the reader into better understanding another's journey. Jan provides a visceral walk in her shows, through which we all may recognize bits and pieces universal to us all, while also gaining a greater sense of empathy for the rough path others have had to tread." — John Busbee, The Culture Buzz"It’s fitting that American Bastard proceeds by leaping, connecting, and separating since that is the form that Beatty’s life has taken. Her goal was to 'create an authentic voice, and to make the story as real and true as possible.' From one adoptee to another, it’s my pleasure to say that she succeeds." —Michele Sharpe, On the Seawall"American Bastard is relentless, a page-turner that one can’t put down. I devoured it in nearly a sitting; I was so mesmerized by Beatty’s story. And though from the start, we are told not to try and place ourselves into Beatty’s experiences as an adoptee, what she achieves in American Bastard is as close as it gets to understanding." —Iris Dunkle, International Swans"Jan Beatty’s American Bastard, winner of the 2019 Red Hen Nonfiction Award, is a blistering, take no prisoners account of adoption that may leave non-adoptees astonished and many adoptees shaking their heads in recognition." —Severance Magazine"This is a necessary addition to the literature of adoption, to a side of the experience that goes too often untold." —Kristofer Collins, Pittsburgh Magazine
