Book

Like Family

McLain, Paula

A memoir about three sisters placed in foster care with the Lindbergh family in rural California in 1974, told from the perspective of the youngest sister as she navigates the experience of becoming part of a new family.

Sequence ladder

Narrative Intelligence sources live outside the figurative image sequence ladder. Adaptive placement applies to image sequences, not this reading library.

Themememoirdesirabilityliterarybody comparisontanjacyagelegs

Contextresearch_analysis

What this book knows

A foster child's body registers what family should mean but never quite did—belonging measured in borrowed beds and overheard sex.

Sex: Present
Work: Absent
Learning: Absent
Religion: Absent

belongingembodimentself-and-identity

belonging

it's like a hotel because nothing belongs to you. It's all being lent, like library books: the bed, the toothbrush, the bathwater
LF-007
If our own family couldn't find a way to keep us and care for us, how could perfect strangers do the job?
LF-015
Dogs are easy. If their tails are up and their eyes are soft, you're in.
LF-008

embodiment

Everyone in the living room was laughing but transfixed, reminding me of the time at the bus stop when the Abels were having their pigs slaughtered.
LF-001
She used the word vagina repeatedly… 'The coolest part is if you love each other, it's not a sin.'
LF-004

self-and-identity

I walked from room to room, touching tabletops and chair arms, leaving my prints everywhere.
LF-010

Illuminates

15 published passages · book excerpt · research analysis

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