Postcards from Cookie: A Memoir of Motherhood, Miracles, and a Whole Lot of Mail
*Starred Review* When Clarke visited Spence-Chapin Family Services, which handled her adoption, she was looking for information that could help answer questions about health concerns. She’d had a happy childhood as the adopted only child of educators, both of West Indian heritage with strong ties to their large families. But when the social worker offered her a thick file, Clarke found herself sifting through detail that suggested that she might actually know the family of her birth mother; in fact, a friend of hers could be a blood relative. Her investigation uncovered the stunning truth, that her mother was Carole “Cookie” Cole, adopted daughter of Nat King Cole, who gave birth to Clarke shortly after the singer’s death. What followed was a flood of bicoastal phone calls, e-mails, letters, and postcards as Clarke, an editor at Black Enterprise, reached out to her birth mother in L.A. Respectful of Clarke’s relationship with her adoptive parents but aching to close a gap of 37 years, the two women poured themselves into constant correspondence and struggled daily to restructure their lives, blend their families, and get past the family intrigues behind their separation. This is a loving, sometimes fractious account of the enduring power of family love. --Vanessa Bush