Futureface: A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging

by Alex Wagner

A journalist travels the globe searching for answers to the mystery of her own ancestry, along the way raising deeper questions about the American experience of race, immigration, exile, and identity.

The daughter of a Burmese mother and a white American father, Alex Wagner grew up thinking of herself as a “futureface”—an avatar of a mixed-race future when all races would merge into a brown singularity. But when one family mystery leads to another, Wagner’s post-racial ideals fray as she becomes obsessed with the specifics her own family’s racial and ethnic history. Drawn into the wild world of ancestry, she embarks upon a quest around the world—and into her own DNA—to answer the ultimate questions of who she really is and where she belongs.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Race, Biography, History, Politics, Biography Memoir

Audio CD

First published April 17, 2018

About the author

Alexandra Swe Wagner is an American journalist and author. She is the co-host of The Circus on Showtime and the author of FutureFace: A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging. She is also a contributor for CBS News and a contributing editor at The Atlantic.

Reviews

[SundayAtDusk · Rating 3 out of 5]

While reading the first 250 pages of this book, I must say I was bored a great deal of the time. I really wasn't looking for a history book. Ms. Wagner's writing tone didn't help the matter, either, although I'm not quite sure how to describe it. I want to say it was "cutesy" some of the time, but that's not really the best description. Maybe "pretentiously clever" would be a better description, or "precociously clever" could have been used if the author was an adolescent, instead of a middle-aged woman.

I'm afraid I also don't buy the idea that Ms. Wagner was obsessed with finding out her ancestry, obsessed enough to go traveling to do so, and then decided to write a book about her experiences. My guess is she decided to write the book first, and then traveled to research it. Moreover, the idea that there was a "family mystery" to be solved smacks of a gimmick used in so many nonfiction books these days--tell the reading world there is a mystery to be solved and they will come and buy the book. There is really no mystery.

For those readers interested in DNA testing, that part of the story starts after page 250. The author uses 23andMe, Ancestry DNA and Family Tree DNA for herself and some family members. She then talks to individuals who run those companies, as well as university professors about the credibility of ancestry genetic testing. Now, all of that was interesting.

After that comes the author's conclusions about race and searching for one's own people or tribe. Once again, I found it hard to believe she had not reached those conclusions long before she claimed to do so, like maybe before she even researched the book. Believing anything else would have made her seem way too self-obsessed.

(Note: I received a free ARC of this book from Amazon Vine.)

[Mehrsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I recently had a random memory that I was really embarrassed about at the time . My AP US History teacher in HS brought in this 1983 Time Magazine cover and spent a whole class period talking about how it looked just like me and how everyone would look mixed race in the future. I remember shrinking into my desk and going beet red because at the time, I was trying to blend in to my mostly white surroundings and did not want any attention drawn to my "otherness." Anyway, I just remembered it and I looked up the photo. Then I came across this book that is basically another woman who was told she looked like that face! The book is well written and funny. I do have issues with the modern turn toward DNA identities and I thought her desire to be Jewish was weird. However, I loved the parts about Burma and how the memories she had crafter of her past were based on myths and that her ancestors were probably also exploiting Indians as they were also being exploited. History is really complicated as is identity.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

The mixed reviews of this book set my expectations just medium. So I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, learned from it, related to it.

I picked this up because I saw a few recommendations for it in a few places and having recently had my DNA read, thought it would be interesting. Ms. Wagner is just my age so our childhood references are the same (Saved by the Bell, etc.) but when she relays stories of being singled out, "what blood are you" because she looks different (although she feels 100% American) I knew she would provide a unique viewpoint (in fact her dad is of Western European background and her mom is from Burma).

Ms. Wagner tackles her background from several angles-- she researches her mom's Burmese background and travels to Burma to look for records and memories. She travels to Iowa where her father's family settled and prior to that, Luxembourg, where his family emigrated from. She addresses the family stories with, what she refers to throughout the book, a gimlet eye. And in fact she's thoughtful and debunks several family stories (although she's loathe to let go that she might be part Jewish).

Finally she has her DNA tested and addresses the same questions/problems I have with it-- how does it address borders and who are the reference groups? She questions scientists and researchers and employees used to hearing, "but my great-grandma was part Cherokee so why doesn't it show up" type questions.

I'm not particularly interested in my background (probably because I'm not part of a persecuted group) so I was curious about her journey and motivations and truthfully thought she was on a bit of a wild goose chase. But she does the work, learns to accept answers at a self-determined point and moves on. She is clear headed and erudite and although she doesn't come up with a single family origin story, neither does she come up with answers for the rest of us. Is race real? Maybe, maybe not, but that's for us to come to our own conclusions. Have we all done what we could do survive and have we all changed our history to reflect back a little more shiny? Yeah, probably.

In this era of DNA testing and so much world wide social media connections, I wish this book was more read-- it's quite good.

[Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful audiobook read by the author. Since this is such a powerful personal story, the fact that Alex reads it gives enhances the effect. I got so much out of this book on so many levels.
On the micro level, Alex takes a deep dive into her own family's racial and ethnic and migratory history, and comes up with really interesting histories of her ancestors in Burma and in Europe. On the macro level, Alex comes up with profound truths that apply to many of us. For instance, if the land that her ancestors from Luxembourg were given to settle on in Iowa was at some point stolen from other people (Native Americans) who lived there first, that must also apply to the land that my own Norwegian ancestors also settled on in Iowa.
Alex also takes an additional deep dive into the "ancestry industry" that has become such a popular way for people to explore what their DNA reveals about their heritage. The picture she paints is not necessarily a pretty one. Buyer beware! Maybe we put more faith in these findings than they deserve.
Another excellent book about genealogy: "Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love," by Dani Shapiro (2019). These two books, make a great pair!

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first heard of Alex Wagner from her podcast with John Heileman. She seemed intelligent and interesting. When I heard she'd just released her first book, Futureface: A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging, I thought it might be worth reading.

Basically, Alex, daugher of a Burmese mother and Luxembourgian father, decided to research her family, to try and find out more about her roots. This journey will take her to Burma (now Myanmar), Luxembourg and points in between. It will also delve into the mysteries of agencies like Ancestor.com and others. Alex wants to find out the family secrets, where she fits into the world, is she Burmese, Luxembourgian, maybe Jewish? Or is she a Futureface, the mixing of genetic heritage into a future you?

It's a fascinating journey. The little I knew about Burma was from reading George Orwell's Burmese Days, H.E. Bates's The Purple Plain, and maybe finding a few other books, and also reading about Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's military coup, the treatment of the Rohinga.. Hmm, maybe I knew more than I thought. Alex heads to Burma, after trying to get information from her mother and grandmother. She, in my opinion, does jump to some conclusions based on her meetings and research into Burma's history, but they may be valid, even so. How the military junta has basically eradicated the history of the country is one of the depressing notes. She also tries to find out more about her father's family; why the left Luxembourg, about the area in which the settled; land taken from the Winnebago nation in the midwest. She also tries to discover if there is Jewish blood in her father's side of the family, just based on conversations with members of the family, mainly, it seems, due to their predilection for drinking Mogen David wine. LOL.

The final portion of the book covers her final search, the effort to track down the genetic markers in her family, spending what seems like lots of money sending swabs and spit samples to Ancestor, 23andMe, etc. She realizes how inaccurate these processes can be and does get down into the weeds a bit in this portion.

All in all, I enjoyed Wagner's writing style, comfortable, friendly, funny, informative. The search is all very interesting and on the way she covers the (mis)treatment of native Americans, subjugated races in Burma; thoughts on the world's future (will races in fact be blended or not?), etc. It wasn't what I expected but I enjoyed nonetheless and I hope she continues providing us with her unique, interesting perspectives. (4 stars)

[Martha · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book began well--well-written, interesting topic, and I learned a lot about the history of Burma (Myanmar), a subject on which I knew basically nothing. However, as the book progressed, I became increasing tired of the author, who, in the course of searching for "her people," spends a lot of time speculating and imagining rather than simply researching--there is quite a lot she could have learned from Wikipedia or a couple of history books before flying out to Myanmar and Luxembourg only to discover that what she needed had been destroyed or was inaccessible. And in a language she could not read.

The last part of the book deteriorated into a long discussion of genetic genealogy tests, in which she focused solely on the "ethnicity estimates," which genealogists know to be largely a parlor game, and did not even mention the reason most serious researchers use these tests--to find others who share their DNA and use those connections to solve brick-wall problems. She did not seem to understand the difference between the different types of tests (Y-DNA, mitochondrial, and autosomal)--instead of just looking it up, she shared her own thoughts and suppositions. (Also, some things she really SHOULD have looked up on Wikipedia--she says "Men, unlike women, don't pass the X chromosomes on to their children"--p. 281--where does she think she got her second X?).

Finally, she seemed to think Ancestry.com is run by some kind of Mormon cabal, and kept conflating FamilySearch, Ancestry, and the LDS Church: "if I began using the Ancestry platform, partaking of its DNA tests and registering for its online archives, U Mying Kaung [her ancestor]....might someday end up listed as a member of the Church of Latter-day Saints, his name included in the Mormon registry rolls, which were locked away behind the fourteen-ton doors of the Granite Mountain Records Vault..." (p.249). And there is a lot more of this kind of thing. It felt like she was trying to do some kind of expose of the genealogy business--except half of it seems basically uninformed and the other half is not news to anyone who has been researching their family history over the years.

Which brings me to my final complaint--her family history discoveries were pretty underwhelming, and not what I would characterize (as the book jacket does) as "a family mystery, an epic quest, and the secret to belonging." Not much of a family mystery (more like no one had yet bothered to look into the family history), and she didn't seem to do a lot of delving into actual records, as opposed to fantasizing about possible scenarios. So that part was disappointing as well. Her quest was not so much epic as frustrating to anyone who has pursued similar research.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like this was a bit more muddled than it really needed to be, but then again, that might be the point. Wagner sets out to find out where she belongs, which is a very human draw I think. But, in her telling it, all I could think about was how I didn't need an epic quest to know that I belong and am from where I am. That sounds weird right, but despite whatever roots I might have (like most people it's family lore and a bit unclear), I am a product of this American time and place. And, for a left coast city dweller in the US in 2018, that's a complicated statement.

Wagner goes on a genealogical quest to investigate her roots which I thought was actually the most interesting part. The book gets a little muddled in the long discussions of DNA and records research. It felt like half family history, magazine expose and it just got muddy for me. I didn't really ever feel the connection to the less personal passages in the book.

[Dlmrose · Rating 3 out of 5]

3+

[Erin Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book because I just wrote a book about my family history, myself, and genealogy is my first love. I wanted to adore this book, and I do appreciate the passion, emotional turmoil, and searching—both literal and that of the soul—that the author undertook.

This statement particularly resonated with me: "I was not alone in my decision to make a heritage voyage. All over the world,, (relatively prosperous) second- and third-generation immigrants were returning to their ancestral homes to hold what can best be termed an Experiential Séance, in which the ghost of ancestors past comes alive through the touring of homes, monuments, cemeteries, castles, distilleries, and the like. A veritable...expedition that [is] sure to return you back home with a keener, more tactile understanding of your left-behind blood," (pp. 197-198). I read this book during one such ancestral pilgrimage of sorts, to the home where my great-grandparents spent the latter part of their lives, and I sorted through about 150 years'-worth of pictures, documents, newspaper clipping, greeting cards, and other genealogical gems. This setting made me ripe for the picking, intellectually and emotionally, to read this book.

Unfortunately, the end result of this book seemed to come in fits and starts, oscillating from congenial to clinical and clunky. The small nuggets of the journalist’s humor and wit were buried beneath the heavy-handed deliverance of the facts. It is, indeed, a noble calling to breathe life into the dashes between a birth date and a death date on a gravestone, to give credence to how people lived and loved and worked and died. This particular offering was well-researched but needed a different execution; ultimately, I found it difficult to invest in, emotionally.

[S · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried this book because I heard Obama had liked it. But I found that its about as shallow and self absorbed as you should guess from a subtitle ending "the secret to belonging". The book begins (on the audiobook version) with an exhausting hour long introduction in which the author repeatedly (and repeatedly) outlines the need for her quest ("who am I", "what tradition should I follow as a mixed descent person", "who AM I", "no really who am I"). I was glad to get through the Intro, which is the worst part, because the author comes across as extremely self introspective (and privileged). However, the rest of the book is only the second worst part.
The author first travels to Burma to try to find out about her ancestry- what her mother's family was like. From there its mostly mundane, super boring little anecdotes about her close and distant relatives, interspersed with an all too brief history lesson into the source of the Rohinga genocide. This was the only part of the book of interest, and it was not much more detailed or subtle than a Wikipedia article. I kept trying, but really found no interest in the author's family stories. They are just. so. boring.
There are one or two moments of introspection, such as "maybe we're all actually a little too obsessed with our historical roots and tradition because that always seems to lead to violence", but this quickly devolved into some scoffing about "Trump country". Another reviewer described the writing style as "pretentiously clever" alternating with a "dry delivery of facts." I couldn't agree more. I rarely abandon books but am glad to put this one down.
Maybe the book gets better but I made it a third of the way in and couldn't go further. If it gets much better, someone let me know.

[LD · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alex Wagner has an interesting family story extending from Burma to Luxembourg, yet she grew up feeling that she didn't quite fit into the blended American heritage/melting pot narrative nor the heritage of her parents. She sets out on both a genealogical research adventure and an actual adventure, returning to the homelands of her ancestors.

While I was invested in learning her findings, the written story itself is feels prolonged and unproductive at times. I'd compare it to a research paper that had a minimum number of pages/words required. She does an excellent job of providing scientific explanations for DNA technology in an understandable way and she has an effortless quality in her writing style, which is peppered with a great sense of humor.

*I received an advanced reader copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an impartial review.*

[Janilyn Kocher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Futureface is a story about ancestry, exploration, discovery, and more research. Alex Wagner sought answers on both sides of her family backgrounds about who she really was. I enjoy reading about people's genealogical searches and what they discover. Wagner gets caught up in the minutiae, which clogs the story some, but overall, readers derive a sense of who she is. Thanks to NetGalley for the advance read.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a little trouble getting into the book, I'm not sure if it was the structure or the writing style. When Wagner digs into subjects like the history of Burma and her family's role in it or the underlying data structure of the 23andMe, etc. genetic ancestry companies the book is really interesting. Her dad was from Iowa (Allamakee County, specifically) so that was an unexpected connection.

[Jenna Cross · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t understand the lower rating that this book has on Goodreads. I enjoyed this book from beginning to end. I also found the writing style very engaging. It was fun to learn the ins and outs of the dna home testing and see the differences between the companies and why they differed.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic voice, good food for thought

[La'Tonya Miles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhere along the way, I couldn't remember why I was reading this book, and I so I just stopped. It's actually well-written, but it just feels drawn out. Good premise though.

[CJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I enjoyed most were the questions or reframing statements that most chapters ended with: “America was the beginning, but in a weird way, it was also the conclusion of a story that had begun long ago [the sabers and cannons of Western Europe],” “we had left, therefore we [thought] were exempt from examining whether we too might have harbored some of the same exclusionary misguided ideas about Burmese superiority,” “both [parents’] sides had crafted an identity that buried the uncomfortable truths of the past... we were storytellers, revisionists, liars. We built our future selves on deceit and half-truths, we plastered our cracks with omissions - as well as genuine courage and smarts and will. In this act of recreation we became Americans. And, I guess, there was some kind of belonging in that.”

Alex Wagner ends with the definitive “after looking so hopefully to the past, the present was the only community I would and could ever know.” Inspiring language about finding belonging not in “lost cities” but “my blood is gushing through ... and my people were the hordes” - the living.

Forces me to consider how I would frame the idea of still finding belonging with past communities, but in the more unvarnished way - to use her language when she said her story was being “part of a community of upheaval and ecstasy” - to look in the face of the aspirations and the abuses that shape the past of an identity I try to claim, particularly religion.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I actually hated the process of reading this book. I found the narrative voice so obnoxious. It was like a really long episode of Who Do You Think You Are, where a person explores their genealogy, and while I think this was interesting and valuable for the writer, I don't think there was any reason to make this a book. The end did talk about the science behind commercial DNA tests, which was actually quite fascinating. I was all prepared to give the book a three star rating because it was okay, I just didn't like it. But then the author came out of nowhere for a long discussion on the importance my religion places on family history research and why, and I felt that it was unnecessary and very flippant in tone. I read this because it was one of Barack Obama's top reads of 2018, and I usually find his recommendations of high caliber, this book broke from that trend.

[Cia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent telling, sometimes funny, never boring.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well. I MOSTLY enjoyed this story of a daughter of a Burmese immigrant and a man from Iowa with European ancestry. The story of her investigations into her family history was pretty interesting. I enjoy family history very much, and I have also had DNA testing done, which the author takes up later in the book. I guess what keeps this from being a 5 star for me is . . . the author somehow expected first family history, then DNA testing, to sort of explain her life. She seems to have put so much into finding out something specific, which she never seems to find. Nothing is enough. She does learn about many of her ancestors, but she's dissatisfied with her Burmese results because of lack of documentation in Burma and because she thinks her family might have been imperfectly nationalist. And she thinks she wants to discover that her father's family is Jewish. That doesn't turn out to be true. She's DISAPPOINTED about this, and also she then seems to want to turn up more info, or at least emotionally charged stuff, than is there. She finds lots of interesting information! But again she seems dissatisfied. Then she spends a bit ranting about the LDS church, oddly. The usual accusations of "they keep all this stuff locked up in a mountain" after she mentions USING THEIR INFO. Which we provide. For free. FREE. She seems especially upset that Ancestry gives memberships to church members, like this is some kind of mafia deal or something, and not merely the payment for using info that we voluntarily indexed and provided . . . FOR FREE. Also, she hates DNA testing. Again, she puts SO much weight on it. She seems to expect it to provide some kind of life meaning---and she is wildly upset at the differing percentages you can get from different sites. She seems to be under the impression that it was all a lot more precise when she bought the kits, and feels gypped that it's not so precise. Which I find odd because if you read the info when you do it, which I did--I just did not feel that way myself. I knew that I would only be getting general pictures and possibilities, and I understood about the test populations, before I plunked down the money. ALSO she bought ALL the kits, when you just have to buy one of them and then upload the data to other sites if you want. She is REALLY REALLY bothered that she and her dad have Scandinavian heritage, like that should change their whole view of who they are as people. When LOTS of people with Western European and British heritage also have Scandinavian heritage. Um . . . spoiler alert . . . sometimes people in neighboring areas moved. Met each other. And . . (gasp) reproduced. Why is this so hard to understand? Anyway. Still pretty interesting.

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I added this to my list last year when Obama recommended it, and have been disappointed to find it duller than dull. The author failed to make me care about the her search for a sense of belonging, and I didn't understand why she thought she was more likely to find it in the countires of her ancestors than around the kitchen table with her flesh and blood family.

Her logic was confusing, at best. She desperately wanted to see the room a Burmese politician was shot in, but failed to explain how seeing it would be, "a reflection of who I was, indelible proof of my belonging."

She oddly thought Burma should have frozen in time after her family left. "It was, in the end, somewhat devastating that all the things I'd hoped to find...had been lost or repainted or thrown out on the street or papered over." Is the United States frozen in 1965? What rational adult would expect anything different?

I made it a full half-way through this book before deciding it was alright to abandon, which is more than I think this book deserved. I usually find the examination of identity interesting, but not this time.

[Janis Walker · Rating 1 out of 5]

Whiney, typical misunderstanding that one tests DNA for the ethnicity breakdown. Repetitive. But rather well-written.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this was an interesting read about the author's origins (her European father and Burmese mother) as she trekked to better understand herself and her roots, it did get a bit convoluted between the "tangential desire to be Jewish/Jewish theory" and the ancestry DNA testing scandals. Don't get me wrong, the ancestry DNA testing scandals were really fascinating and shocking - and it was pretty hilarious the comparison one researcher (sorry, can't remember his title) made that it was akin to crystal reading. Basically when testing for your ancestry via DNA, there are reference populations used (but not many, because there's the public data available, not much (literally an understatement), and then there's the pool of data collected and added from those testing (so, the bias becomes there is a higher slant of the pool of data toward... mostly rich (white) people who can afford to be tested). Again, fascinating. But, also, an unexpected turn of her story. I found the unending desire to be Jewish to be a bit distasteful (understatement) - as in, by the end of the memoir, it felt like a running gag (like are we seriously looking for evidence based on what someone drank for dinner each year and a comment an older uncle made while most likely intoxicated?

I do understand the desire for finding your people and community, as I think that's a human trait, not just futureface (although, I get that as that too. Growing up, I didn't feel part of the Korean crowd nor Jewish crowd, but in my case, I gravitated toward more Asian friends (it also was NYC ;), versus a less diverse area)). It is fascinating to me that, similar to what Wagner found, it would shock people that non-white people would *actually* be born and raised in the US and not from abroad. (Like as much as 5 or so years ago, which we're talking mid 2010s - I really shouldn't be incredulously asked a second time, "Where are you really from?" after already answering, "NYC". But, I digress. ;)

It is interesting to read of her history - both the Burmese side and the Luxembourg side and her realization from start to finish that while she was looking for something exotic that made her "unique and special", it was the breaking down of family lore that connected her to humanity - as in, we are all flawed, broken, corrupt in some way (us, our families of origin). And that "making something great again" (looking at you, political slogan), disregards the progress that has been made AS WELL AS disregards the pain that many groups of people had in that allegedly "great" period. Leaving the question of it may have been "great", but for who?

[Lisa Roney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is unusual in the family-history, DNA-stories mode, and I liked it for that. The voice was by turns earnest and comic, which seems to get on some readers’ nerves, but which I found to be a good indication that the author had a sense of humor and even a little embarrassment about her endeavor. I often feel that way myself about my interest in genealogy and family history due to the retrograde reputation of hobbyists in the area. More and more, there are at least pockets of the genealogy world that move beyond looking for royalty in order to prove themselves special or “pure,” but it’s an uneasy arena, as Wagner articulates.

The book is written as a narrative of the author’s search about her family history, and it sometimes is a little tedious in that way. But she had to tell it that way because her research was so inconclusive. Her journey was the story. I sometimes questioned the conclusions she came to (most didn’t seem to meet the proof standard), and I sometimes wondered in the earlier chapters if and when she was going to get to DNA testing (which she does toward the end). But it ended up being refreshing that she didn’t get the kinds of clear, simple results she had set out looking for. I also was moved by her honesty about some of the ways that she found family members imperfect, even prejudiced, even though half her tree was non-European and her entire family viewed itself as working for social justice.

Wagner’s makes many points that are profound, though there was an oddly superficial way in which she did so. It’s an important observation that that people use family trees and DNA tests to try to figure out identities for themselves, but that they are in many ways making up stories while doing that. It’s important that halcyon days often really were much more fraught and complicated than the origin stories we hear from relatives. It’s important that our forbears weren’t perfect, that many of them were on the wrong side of history (like the Confederates in my tree). And it’s deeply important that we as individuals and cultures be willing to face these things. Wagner says all that but here’s where I, too, had a little trouble with the insouciance. Maybe it’s because she is a TV star, but I wanted more examination of these ideas. Still, I’m really happy to see these complexities addressed at all.

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wagner has a fun voice, but this book also makes her seem exhausting. The family mystery hinted at in the title quickly reveals itself to be Wagner's own conviction and hope, despite little evidence, that her Catholic father's Luxembourgian family might secretly be Jewish. Spoiler alert: no other evidence emerges that they are, but Wagner keeps up the bit for nearly the entire book. Besides this, there's a ton of unabashed speculation about the circumstances of her family's migrations and their intentions (another thread is the supposedly dark secret that prompted her great-grandfather to change his last name, leave Luxembourg, and return at least once - there's not really any evidence to build a theory on). She repeatedly emphasizes that the larger societal events happening (the land theft and genocide of western American expansion, the fall of colonialism and ethnic tensions in Southeast Asia) belie the quaint romantic notions of her family's past, and I get it but don't think it needed to be repeated so many times.

However, what I found the most confusing and unsettling was Wagner's brazen need to find meaning and identity in some secret family history. Even when she finds solace - after freaking out somewhat about the inaccuracy of DNA testing - in the conclusion that we're all part of the human race, her notion of community takes as its base genetic similarity. It was as if it never occurred to her that community could be intentionally built among people who aren't related. Or the opposite, that finding out her great-grandfather was once Jewish would not give her any insight into Jewish culture, certainly not on par with someone who was raised in it. That she settled into white American culture but now wants an exotic heritage is mentioned but unexplored. I don't necessarily fault her for getting to that point but I still find it odd to put so much out there without really examining it.

On the plus side, Wagner's journeys through Burmese archives are kind of fun even though she doesn't find anything; it also provides a spot to run through some general Burmese history. She's pretty self-aware about her lack of research skills so the history doesn't get that detailed, but it's probably a good enough overview.

[Harini Rajagopal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wanted the research into her background tell her she is a jew. Didn’t happen.
Appreciate that she accepted defeat but it did look like she was obsessed about it throughout the book
No judgement just a observation
Loved a consolidated view of what all the ancestry websites do and for the farce they are.
As a data analyst I can understand undersampling and overcompensating results
Best part was her granny’s last words were “nice watch” before she passed. One that brought out her love for material things until death and her devil may care attitude on what others thought about her. Appreciated that honesty
Book research was super expensive. Especially this one cause she travels so much. Nobody in their right state of mind would try to do that unless the cost is being borne by someone else. Well tha’ts the middle class in me talking
Not belonging to something is a true state of depression. FOMO is just the beginning.
Her parallel to not belonging to one of refuges makes sense to me.
Struggle with such emotions is very true. I am a immigrant, makes sense to me.
My understanding of her conclusion is that she belongs in the US where anyone can choose to belong. Thats the true American dream. Didn’t I move for that as well? (Yes)
Future Face = Beige. Reminds me of a Russel Peters joke ” I see the audience some white, some black but in the future we’ll all be beige” haha Russel there is a whole book on it now!
She is a women and is accomplished and thanks the strong women in life for that achievement (Mom and Grand-mom) . I can relate to that. Absolutely. And so can most other women in this generation.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alex Wagner sets out to delve into her family history. And her family history is a bit more intriguing than the average bear. Her mother is Burmese and her father is an Iowan now living in Washington, D.C. She dives first into the Burmese story, even traveling to Burma to trace roots and look for old houses and schools. Wagner discovers how difficult that journey would be after a country had been overtaken by people who sought to obliterate the past as well as people who held a different understanding of keeping organized records.

Wagner then turns to her Iowa roots. I liked her discussion of how the "free land" her ancestors had been promised was not free really. This land belonged to someone else before the United States government forced the Native people off of it. I enjoyed Wagner's quest to discover whether she was secretly Jewish as I think many of us want to be surprised by who our people are. When she discovers the true story (or what story she can discover after 150 years), it is less exciting and does not produce a secret Jewish connection, she pauses to ask why it is so important to know every detail of a past rather that turning the focus on the future.

The concluding section on the spit tests to determine ancestry point out the very real limitations of these tests. It makes me realize what I want from such a test is probably not possible.

This book made me think.

[Gautam Prasad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This felt fresh, funny, and was really interesting. It was an honest dive into the journey of the author understanding her roots. I really appreciated the author recognizing and critiquing the racial superiority she started to feel when she realized her ethnic group in Burma did better historically than most others and how enticing that sort of mindset was. Or her discussion about how so many Americans like to build up their ancestors and say they come from greatness. She also summarized the relatively complex history of Burma in a way that made me understand all of the influences that have contributed to the genocide there. It was fascinating to understand her European roots and alternative reasons why people immigrated to America. And she put into context all of the illegal immigration in the past to America and the key factor that decided the government's reaction. In a way this book made me feel much closer to my American story and made me want to investigate my ancestry because for most people it's probably radically different than the stories we've been told by our family. And it might not be malicious or untrue, but the stories we've heard from our family or generalizations of peoples have their own objective and their own tight views on what happened. My take away from the book was that by understanding the context of your ancestors path to you, you'll need to reconcile class and ethical issues that are universal, uncomfortable, and maybe even freeing.

[Allyson Johnson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can’t think of a book I’ve read in which the pronoun “I” is used so often.
Per the book jacket, the author, Alex Wagner, is on an “epic quest” to discover “the secret of belonging.” But Wagner fails to articulate clearly at the beginning of her book why the quest is important, and what is the “belonging” which eludes her.

Wagner is the child of a Burmese mother and a father whose family immigrated from Ireland and Luxembourg to the US. In the course of the book she visits Burma (now Myanmar) and Luxembourg in search of documentation about her ancestors. But she seems to live in a self-centered cloud. How does this quest resonate with her mother? Her father? Her husband?

We hear about the difficulties of finding records of her family in Burma due to the destruction of records by the military junta, but we hear nothing about how seeing modern Burma, so different from her rose-colored recollections, affects her mother. We hear about her hope that she can uncover Jewish ancestry so that she can “be part of a tribe”, but nothing about her family’s thoughts on that. She takes her husband along on some of her research trips – how does he feel about that? She encourages, almost forces her parents to undergo genetic testing from three different purveyors – how do they feel about the findings?

The gist of the book seems to be “No matter where you go, there you are.” Alex Wagner’s futureface is her own.

[Tammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to say that for the most part I didn’t like the book. What I did really like what what the author was attempting (I think?). An epic conversation about identity, ethnicity, race, and genetics and the us vs. them that seems to plague our world. But the book I wish I had read focused more on the sociology and psychology and anthropology of where we are today. To lament the us vs. them mentality and not mention psychology once seems shocking. The ongoing discussion of race (is it constructed? Is there some genetic difference?) while great, seemed to come in place of an equally important conversation about ethnicity being equally constructed. I appreciated learning a lot of the histories of Burma and Luxembourg and doing it through the lens of a personal family saga. But I do think it was unnecessarily stretched out. And finally, as an Eastern European Jew myself, I found myself getting annoyed at being reduced to an exciting ethnicity the author might find mysteriously hiding in her paternal family’s past. A key to her feeling that she belongs. At the end I felt this book was scattered and would have done well to focus on one thing: the author’s own search for identity, a discussion of genetics, ethnicity, and race, a commentary on the state of the world today.