I Would Meet You Anywhere: A Memoir

"Susan Ito’s memoir tackles an important subject—how to know oneself when information key to one’s identity is deliberately withheld by law from a class of people. Ito is an adoptee who does not have the legal right to the files of her birth mother and by extension biological father. Ito is exploring this fundamental question of identity, who she is, who is her family, over the course of the decades that she spends tracking down her birth mother. Ito was raised by a Japanese American mother and father, but because she is herself mixed race, she stands out from her parents physically, in ways that other people remark upon as she is growing up. This lens allows Ito to examine many notions of family, how the construction of race in the U.S. informs who gets to be considered belonging in a family and in a community, and the ramifications of denying adoptees the rights to their own paperwork. Why is this still allowed? What are the implications of these commodifying and dehumanizing government policies? Ito’s memoir is a profound work. In addition to having timely and important subject matter, Susan Ito has written a really compelling story. She moves through time so well! The book covers decades of her life as she searches for her birth mother, but the story never flags, each chapter moves the story forward, and the reader knows what’s at stake emotionally. I Would Meet You Anywhere is a memoir that feels novelistic in many ways, as Ito renders dialogue really well and her characters are distinct and complex. Despite what could have been an anguishing story, this book was a pleasure to read and a real page-turner."