Triple Helix (Lauren Burns, UQP) 

Lauren Burns received a fork inscribed with the word ‘agitator’ as a present from her boyfriend while trekking through the extreme wilderness of Utah. Burns’s journey as a donor-conceived person is a similar trip: surprising and difficult, traversing tough terrain but with amazing payoffs at the end. Her memoir is also the story of her life as an agitator. Triple Helix begins when Burns’s mother breaks down and tells her that she used anonymous donor sperm to conceive—and that neither she nor Burns have the legal right to know the identity of her biological father. This is the story of Burns fighting for the rights of donor-conceived people to be considered more than merely miracle babies, but as people with diverse and complicated personal histories. Burns sets out to overturn the laws of donor anonymity and her struggles with a complex bureaucratic system are compelling. Interspersed with this story are slower pieces in which she gains insight about her life through her travels; these sections are slightly less compelling. What makes the book engaging is the fight: the plight of donor-conceived people is like that of other minorities who have stood on the edge of acceptance. We come to understand something that is hard to grasp: what Burns describes as ‘disenfranchised grief’ or losing something that you have never really known. Readers who enjoyed Bri Lee’s Eggshell Skull may enjoy this book. 

Rebecca Whitehead is a freelance writer from Melbourne. 

Category: Reviews