Enough: Journey of Ancestry, Identity & Faith

by Lloiden Garza

Overview

About the Book

In 2005, while visiting Philippines to attend a wedding. Lloiden has a bizarre dream about a man with a complexion that matched hers-a man she was certain was her father. The dream disturbed her and made her wonder why she would dream about another man being her father.

The very next day, a relative reveals that she'd heard a rumor that Jack was not Lloiden's father. Bewildered on the timing and shocked by the news. Unwanted memories came flooding back.

In the blink of an eye, she was twelve years old again, reliving the shock of when her cousin revealed that Ed, the man she knew as her father, was not her real father. Those words triggered a whirlwind of emotions and summoned old faces of fear.

Faced with a decision that may upend her life, she decides to confront her mother. Her mother insists that Jack is Lloiden's real father. Although she wanted to believe her mom, something inside her told her to look further.

Lloiden heads out on a journey to solve the mystery about her father.

Guided by a divine presence, her quest takes her to a beautiful island in the Philippines, to a cozy house in North Carolina and to the footsteps of the grand hotel, in Stockholm Sweden.

Enough is a decades-long story rooted to know the truth. It sheds light on the complex mother daughter relationship. And explores the internal struggles that shapes one sense of self. It is a story about the power of perseverance, of embracing oneself, and of finding the courage to thrive.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798986892641
Publisher:	Lloiden Garza Media
Publication date:	02/16/2023
Pages:	188
Sales rank:	1,025,746
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.43(d)

Editorial Reviews

02/27/2023

Garza plumbs the complexities of identity and intricacies of her Filipino heritage in this affecting, often tender debut memoir. She centers her musings on an almost-lifelong search to discover the identity of her biological father, a quest initiated after hearing from family, just before she turned 13, that her mother’s husband, Ed, was not her father. Garza recounts her immediate shock, feeling as “if a book was torn in two, then half was thrown away,” at the news, alongside the aftermath—her close relationship with Ed turned inside out, the seething anger at her mother’s secret, and the blow to her self-worth that kickstarted a lifetime of searching for answers.

Those answers prove more elusive than Garza initially suspects, in part due to her family’s cultural norms and her mother’s reluctance to broach the topic, and she opens up to readers about the emotional toll from years of pursuing dead ends and cryptic family secrets. She characterizes her childhood as one plagued by self-doubt, even before the paternal uncertainty, and shares an intimate view of the challenges her family experienced immigrating to the United States. Church is portrayed as a cornerstone for the family, despite Garza’s friends there referring to her as “FOB” (“fresh off the boat”), and she carries that focus into her adulthood, often relying on her spirituality to guide the search for her father.

Readers will feel compassion for Garza’s desperation when her years of searching, including multiple DNA tests and false leads, seem to be futile: “I felt trapped behind an invisible wall: separate, alone, and cut off” she writes. She offers a glimpse into her adult years in the background, chronicling her marriages and parenthood, and the conclusion, though unexpected, will inspire, as she reveals “small pieces of truth had been around me all along, waiting for the right time for me to understand the meaning.”

Takeaway: The emotional account of an immigrant’s search for her biological father.

Great for fans of: Katherine Linn Caire’s Accidental Sisters, Reyna Grande’s The Distance Between Us.

Production grades Cover: B+ Design and typography: A Illustrations: N/A Editing: B Marketing copy: A-

BookLife Reviews