City of One: A Memoir

This book moved and enlightened me. Cournos' story of surviving what every child fears most--the loss of both her parents--is raw, vivid, and remarkably compassionate given that she became a foster child through willful neglect on the part of her extended family. Cournos succeeds in transforming her own particular journey into a roadmap for others who want or need to understand what it is to be an orphan. Brave and beautifully done!

As a psychiatric social worker this book gives an excellent perspective on the foster care system, how we would knew it and what it has become. In addition the book Dr.Cournos writes sheds an enormous light on the alienation of family and the reasons that alienation might occurr. It was a sad story with a shinning light ending.

It didn't occur to me that I would be so touched by Francine Cournos's book. I have an interest in child welfare issues, which is why I read it. She deals with a much bigger issue than foster care -- she writes about the voluminous effect that the loss of parents can have on a child throughout his or her life. Brava, Dr. Cournos. Thank you for sharing your life with us. This is a must-read for anyone who works with children in any arena.

As a writer, and as someone whose own experiences of childhood loss and its aftereffects closely parallel those of Dr. Cournos, I found City of One both deeply moving and comforting. We who have the hole where the loving parent should be, we who deal with the myth and the anger and the quest for wholeness, understand every word. Not only does Dr. Cournos evoke the pain of the loss, but her honesty and her search for the strengths that can come from a tragic early life goes beyond judgment and pathology. It goes to the things that define our lifelong sense of who we are. I highly recommend this memoir to anyone who wants to understand or who struggles with these issues.

I am not only a reader of this book, but the author's "foster" sister. This book helps to show how five different children brought together by different circumstances, yet raised as siblings, will develop so differently. The way the passages went from exlpaining why she felt the way she did as a child, when she later understood much more as an adult was deeply moving. She was able to do so much to help others yet unable to help her own circumstances. I feel this book is very important to those who have been lost and feel there is no end in site. People still take childrens loss and have trouble dealing and understanding it. To help a child, to nuture and make that child feel loved and special is every persons job. I am a very poor reader, but found this book riveting and was unable to put it down, until I completed it. The book was written so the reading was easy and the words flowed. This book is for adults and children both. It shows when you allow yourself to feel worthy of love and open enough to share even your horrors with one person, only then you can start to heal. I lived with and loved her yet never knew what was going in the mind of my sister, how sad. How sad it must have been in "A City of One".