The English American

📘 About This Book

When Pippa Dunn,adopted as an infant and raised terribly British, discovers that her birth parents are from the American South, she finds that "culture clash" has layers of meaning she'd never imagined. Meet The English American, a fabulously funny, deeply poignant debut novel that sprang from Larkin's autobiographical one-woman show of the same name. In many ways, Pippa Dunn is very English: she eats Marmite on toast, knows how to make a proper cup of tea, has attended a posh English boarding school, and finds it entirely familiar to discuss the crossword rather than exchange any cross words over dinner with her proper English family. Yet Pippa -- creative, disheveled, and impulsive to the core -- has always felt different from her perfectly poised, smartly coiffed sister and steady, practical parents, whose pastimes include Scottish dancing, gardening, and watching cricket. When Pippa learns at age twenty-eight that her birth parents are from the American South, she feels that lifelong questions have been answered. She meets her birth mother, an untidy, artistic, free-spirited redhead, and her birth father, a charismatic (and politically involved) businessman in Washington, D.C.; and she moves to America to be near them. At the same time, she relies on the guidance of a young man with whom she feels a mysterious connection; a man who discovered his own estranged father and who, like her birth parents, seems to understand her in a way that no one in her life has done before. Pippa feels she has found her "self" and everything she thought she wanted. But has she? Caught between two opposing cultures, two sets of parents, and two completely different men, Pippa is plunged into hilarious, heart-wrenching chaos. The birth father she adores turns out to be involved in neoconservative activities she hates; the mesmerizing mother who once abandoned her now refuses to let her go. And the man of her fantasies may be just that... With an authentic adopted heroine at its center, Larkin's compulsively readable first novel unearths universal truths about love, identity, and family with wit, warmth, and heart.

📖 Summary

The English American is a fabulously funny and deeply poignant debut novel by Alison Larkin that explores the complexities of identity, belonging, and cultural collision. The story centers on Pippa Dunn, a woman who was adopted as an infant and raised in a manner that is thoroughly and traditionally British. Pippa's daily life is steeped in the comforting habits of her adoptive culture. She enjoys Marmite on toast, knows the exact science of making a proper cup of tea, and attended a posh English boarding school. Her domestic life with her proper English family involves calm, polite routines, such as discussing the daily crossword rather than exchanging cross words over dinner. Despite this deeply ingrained British upbringing, Pippa has always felt like an outsider within her own family unit. While her sister is perfectly poised, smartly coiffed, and composed, Pippa is creative, disheveled, and impulsive to her very core. She has spent her life feeling different, sensing that a piece of her personal puzzle is missing. That profound sense of displacement shifts dramatically when Pippa makes a startling discovery about her origins. She learns that her birth parents are actually from the American South. This revelation sets off a profound chain of events, thrusting Pippa into a world of unexpected culture clash that possesses layers of meaning she could never have imagined. As she begins to uncover the truth about her biological heritage, she must navigate the vast chasm between her stiff-upper-lip British conditioning and the vibrant, entirely different cultural landscape of the American South. The novel, which sprang from Larkin's autobiographical one-woman show of the same name, gracefully balances humor and emotional depth. Through Pippa's eyes, readers are invited to examine what it truly means to belong, how we define our families, and how reconciling disparate parts of our heritage can ultimately lead to self-discovery and acceptance.

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