The Mistress's Daughter

I found the story spell-binding for so many reasons. Not only am I a law professor who writes about adoption and reproductive technology, but also I am married to an adoptee who is the son of a woman who was -- perhaps unknowingly -- involved with a married man.



Some questions:



1. I'd like to know more about Homes's thoughts concerning why she had not searched.



2. How did having a daughter change her thoughts on her interactions with her biological mother?



3. A feeling of the "subtlety of biology," a lovely aphorism, is not something that Homes necessarily welcomes. I sometimes feel that biology raps me over the head when I look at biologically-related family members. How has infertility affected our feelings about the "subtlety of biology"?



4. Notwithstanding what happens in the book, most adoptions from the 1950s' and 60s' are closed, with birth records sealed except upon a courts' finding "good cause" to open them. In light of Homes's experiences, does this seem to be the appropriate method for handling adoption records?