I just don't understand how anyone could give this book fewer than the full five stars! For me, this was one of the best books I've ever read - thought-provoking, hilarious, sad and beautiful in turn. I have already lent it to my best friend, bought a copy for my husband, and recommended it to other friends.
It's an engaging and deeply moving read - and it starts brilliantly by describing Jackie's first meeting with her biological father, a born-again Christian and preacher in Nigeria. At various points while reading this I laughed out loud (including while on the underground with people looking at me and thinking I must be mad - but it really was side-splittingly funny) and was also moved to tears.
This is non-fiction at its rawest - Jackie Kay's autobiographical writing is both unflinchingly genuine and beautifully written. She is a very appealing, likeable narrator, which makes it even harder to read of her experiences of rejection and prejudice - although these experiences aren't recounted with self-pity at all. Kay's memories are woven together thematically, so the book does jump around a bit chronologically, but it's very compelling in terms of how it builds up these themes in rich layers waiting to be dug into when Kay meets her birth parents.
This is not just a book about adoption (though obviously that forms its starting point) but about the whole experience of growing up, and about the nuances of growing up as a girl, as a lesbian and as somebody of mixed race. So I know it is not just about one thing, and that may make it less appealing to some readers. But personally I felt this really worked for me. Because how can you understand adoption, and think about what makes real family, without thinking about the whole experience of growing up and discovering yourself and understanding what family means? It did not matter to me that I had not been adopted, am not lesbian and am not mixed race - that is not the point and that is not why you should pick up this book. Red Dust Road is not a book that shuts out readers. Rather, it is a book that welcomes them in, with great generosity of spirit, inviting them to listen to the story and think and empathise and understand. And throughout the whole book, Jackie Kay's extraordinarily genuine and appealing voice shines through.
A stunning book.