Who Daddy

Bliss Broyard struggles on nearly every page of her memoir One Drop with whether or not you can know who you are if your dad doesn't tell you — or at least he hides a critical piece of himself, in her case passing as a bigoted white while born of two black parents.

Literary critic Anatole Broyard was worldly and prickly and kept the secret of his origin from his well-to-do white Connecticut-bred son and daughter until they were in their 20s and he faced his last days. With others having already had their say, Ms. Broyard went in search of her dad, but really wanted to find herself.

And isn't that — with its particular twist in this case — always the case. A child looks up to the father to find out the possibilities of who s/he can be and will eventually study his/her father's life to try and discover the secrets of who s/he has become ... and why.

** It's a bit frightening to know that what you think you have successfully hidden as much as what you've proudly shared forms your child. **