You'll Always Be White To Me
A Memoir
by Garon Wade
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Pub Date 28 May 2021 | Archive Date 14 Jul 2021
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Description
Three years in to Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war, an abandoned baby ends up in the adopted arms of a white American couple living in a Colombo home that doubles as a CIA safe house. They take him on an extraordinary journey around the globe as he’s launched into the diplomatic world of ambassadors, UN workers, and international schools.
Each summer he returns to the bayous of his parents’ small-town Louisiana, as exotic to him as the golden South African savannahs of his early childhood. He’s curious to know this America, a country he may someday be a part of. But with sincere love comes racism wrapped in the drawling sweetness of his grandparents’ good intentions.
Garon Wade’s transcendent memoir is an international coming-of-age story that explores how the heart of an orphan grew to love a world that didn’t always love him back. You’ll Always Be White To Me asks us who we are, what our common humanity is, and if it’s possible to look beyond our color and find our way there.
Advance Praise
"Not many 30-somethings could write a memoir so full of experience and reflection. Garon leads us through a lifetime of adventure, relationships, lessons, and gratitude. His memoir shows that with love, it is possible to save lives, heal heartache, make a home across the world, fulfill our dreams, and create a family of our own design. Engaging story told with the cadence and charm of a natural storyteller. - Amazon Review
Loved this read!! What an adventure of him growing up overseas and in a new country every year. It is raw, emotional, and moving. Loved it. Be inspired and read Garon’s book! - Amazon Review
Garon Wade’s YABWTM is a touching exploration of the intersections between family, race, and identity. Left at an orphanage in Sri Lanka, Wade was adopted by a white couple who apparently had all the love in their hearts to share. Wade’s mixed-race, family tale takes you through South Africa, the Gambia, Louisiana, and Jordan, just to name a few places. He approaches his world with such intellectual curiosity, but surprisingly against the backdrop of Apartheid, Gambian coups, and 9/11. He is forced to try to understand the inequalities in this world time and again and survive tremendous loss, all the while trying to figure out who he is and what it means to be a person of color in a mostly white extended family. The journey is as heartbreaking as it is moving. In the end, Wade has to find out for himself, what is family, and what kind of family does he want. His journey is immensely personal. At times you are joyful at his many blessings and then in a flash you are angry at the many obstacles thrown his way, but you are always rooting for him. It is an engaging story that keeps you turning pages until the very end. - Amazon Review
What an incredible book about Garon’s remarkable life story. I experienced every emotion while reading. I laughed. I teared up. I cried. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this life adventure. I felt that I was really with Garon, beside him, during each and every experience, in every country, with every family member, in every situation. The visual images the words created just carried me through this amazing life journey. I don’t think I have ever felt this way while reading a book. I thank Garon for sharing his personal memories in such a profound manner.- Amazon Review
This book is such a refreshing, loving, forgiving and merciful perspective on unintentional, and sometimes intentional, prejudices that some people can have on other humans and their choices. Add to that adventure, humor, aviation (a personal fav of mine), adoption, romance, friendship, and just straight up entertainment, this book has it all.
I loved it. Every page. Every story. So many lessons to learn in this book while thoroughly enjoying the way Garon narrates his own story.
What an interesting life he’s lived. Definitely a book I would recommend to anyone!!!!! - Amazon Review
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Featured Reviews
Mark F, Reviewer
Certainly a fascinating tale on how Garon after being left, days old, at a Sri Lankan orphange overcame all hurdles in his life to become happy, successful in his career, married to Jamie and adopt 2 kids and maintain great family and friendship links all the way through
This is not a story of overcoming rampant racism or homophobia, in fact in many ways most of us ( who are affected by either) have endured similar or even worse than he mentions in his memoirs although there are occasions these things do occur and he battles through them
After his initial bad start in life he will agree he had a privileged life, living around the world and going to American Schools wherever he was and spending nights and holidays at friends’ houses who were Ambassadors children or similar, from humble beginnings life was and is generous to him
He loves his family, this is evident throughout and was disappointed in how one very major player in his life suddenly was gone
The book is in full flow and then seems to just end, quite abruptly, I guess it’s a good sign I wanted to read more!
It was though interesting to read about his life in various places in the world and his gregarious nature and personality shone through each page
I feel like I have read someones random yet vibrant memoirs and not quite sure why but am no worse off for doing so
4 Stars
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