Synopses & Reviews
From Dan Savage, the writer whose sex-advice column, "Savage Love," enrages and excites four million people every week, comes the compelling and unexpected story of this journey into parenthood.
Dan and his boyfriend, Terry, want a baby. So they do what millions of other couples do: They decide to adopt.
Their odyssey begins at a two-day seminar in Portland, with six other couples all straight who can't conceive, either. After rejecting the idea of making a "bio-kid" with a lesbian couple, a lesbian single, and even their straight next-door neighbor, Dan and Terry decide on an "open adoption," in which the birth mother selects the adoptive parents for her child. Their gay friends think they're sellouts. The far right think they're sinners. And the odds of a mother selecting a gay couple for her baby (most seem to be looking for "Christian homes") must be a million to one.
When Dan and Terry are selected by the birth mother, they announce, "We're pregnant!" But there are issues: The mother a street kid drank and used drugs during the pregnancy, so there1s the risk of fetal alcohol syndrome, and despite the doctor1s order to get bed rest, she1s still living on the streets. As Dan and Terry tag along on her prenatal visits and the due date rapidly approaches, the fears common to expectant parents mount: What if the baby isn't healthy? What if we aren't parent material? And what if the birth mother changes her mind and decides to keep the baby? Meanwhile, giddy, prospective grandmothers are violating Dan and Terry's "no gifts before birth" decree by buying things they just couldn't resist, like two I love Daddy bibs from Dan's mother.
In The Kid, Dan Savage shares his views on what it means to be gay and raising a child in America today. In the process, he takes his usual scathingly funny, on-target potshots at everything from growing up gay to committing to a younger man, from the gay left to the religious right, homophobia, love, getting fat, getting married, getting old and the very human desire to have a family.
Review
"A disarmingly frank, wickedly funny account of an ultimately successful quest to adopt a baby." People
Review
"Very funny....Compelling and moving." Newsday
Review
"Savage tackles the politics of gay adoption head-on....Intelligent and honest...a love story, an argument, and a how-to book all in one." The San Francisco Chronicle
Synopsis
The syndicated sex advice columnist of "Savage Love" tells a no-holds-barred story of an ordinary American couple who want to have a baby, except that in this case, the couple happens to be Savage and his boyfriend.
Synopsis
Dan Savage's nationally syndicated sex advice column, "Savage Love," enrages and excites more than four million people each week. In The Kid, Savage tells a no-holds-barred, high-energy story of an ordinary American couple who wants to have a baby. Except that in this case the couple happens to be Dan and his boyfriend. That fact, in the face of a society enormously uneasy with gay adoption, makes for an edgy, entertaining, and illuminating read. When Dan and his boyfriend are finally presented with an infant badly in need of parenting, they find themselves caught up in a drama that extends well beyond the confines of their immediate world. A story about confronting homophobia, falling in love, getting older, and getting a little bit smarter, The Kid is a book about the very human desire to have a family.
About the Author
Dan Savage is the author of the internationally syndicated sex-advice column "Savage Love" and the editor of The Stranger, Seattle's weekly newspaper. His books include Skipping Towards Gomorrah; Savage Love, a collection of his advice columns; and The Kid, an award-winning memoir about adoption. His writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, the op-ed pages of The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Onion, and other publications. He has also contributed numerous pieces to This American Life on NPR.