Memoirs highlight fathers' joy and the spectrum of adoptive relationships, suggesting complex cultural narratives.
Fathers' adoption memoirs tend to set their own story in a larger framework, whether it is racism in America, ideas about child-rearing, the history of Native Americans or of China, or the treatment of children with autism, or cultural attitudes towards gay people. They often emphasize their joy in their children. Adoptees' memoirs represent a range of adoptive fathers, from loving (especially in memoirs by daughters) to threatening (especially in memoirs by sons).
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Marianne Novy (2025) studied this question.
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