Retirement is not an option. A Conversation with Seymour Ubell, first time novelist at 88 years old. surrounded by a complex family environment. The story, both tragic and filled with joy, is filled with twists and turns throughout children’s young lives. Including Seymoer Ubell: A middle-aged the dramatic chance meeting by New York couple with a ten- the adoptive father with the actual year-old son, decide to adopt Chinese Birth Mother. twin girls, as a result of totally circumstantial events. Daryl and HW: Where does your inspiration foryour story come Maxine Landsman go through the complex labyrinth of adoption from in this book? in China. The couple brings the twins home. The children grow SU: The story tumbled into my lap from a personal experience up in New York between my wife and me. Very early in my career in China, one of my partners brought me to an orphanage. He was a benefactor at the institution. I saw the children and fell in love. As a result of the meeting, we had an opportunity to adopt the twins. We reluctantly decided not to. Because of a time in life when I was in my early sixties, just a bit too old to take on the responsibility of two infant children. As the years passed, my wife would mention, “The girls would have been five years old now Hollywood Weekly: The title of your book, The Birth Mother is intriguing. Tell us a little bit about the story.
and nursery school age.” Once again, eight years later, Marsha said, “it would have been time for their Bat-Mitzvah and years later my wife would remind me; “Our twins would have been off to go to college. At that moment I decided to write a novel that we did, in fact, adopt the children. What I learned from that experience is, women never forget anything. Men hardly remember anything. HW: Where does the theme God is a woman come from? SU: Let me begin by stating, I am an atheist. However, I do believe in kindness, caring and accepting all people into my life, regardless of religion, race or politics. My wife is a very wise and the kindest, most loving person I have ever been with. She is my partner; I trust her the most. For more than three decades, I learned that women are much smarter, more sensitive and more creative than man is. As I wrote, the story; the tale began to have a life of its own and it took over. It guided me down the path, that if, there is a God, that God must, without question, be a woman. And so, I argue, if God is a man; Why do women have the power to perpetuate the species? Why do women have the power to feed the species if there is no food? Adam never ate
