People be like “Jonathan Franzen considered adopting an Iraqi orphan, what was he thinking?”

Well, I’m guessing he was thinking by analogy to the fact that adopting Vietnam War orphans was a definite thing among the ‘70s literari/smart set.

Like, I definitely remember at least one writer reminiscing about the incongruity of going to majority-Asian bar mitzvahs in the ‘80s Upper West Side, and Doonesbury, the “adventures of Boomer elite archetypes” comic strip had a character with just such a backstory.

Of course what’s changed since then is the coastal “start a family in your 40s” types now have access to fertility treatments.