The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir

In August 1975, 27-year-old Turkle is rocked by the death of her maternal grandmother. She feels compelled to begin what becomes a four-year search to find her estranged biological father, Charlie Zimmerman. Her late mother’s belief that her daughter was better off not knowing him, and her desire to keep their divorce a secret, has stopped Turkle from seeking him out until now.

She is no longer content living in her family’s “regime of pretend” that requires her to lie about her name and parentage (xii). Her mother remarried a man named Milton Turkle when Sherry was five years old. Since then, they’ve lived as if her new stepfather were her real father and often lied to protect this family secret, even from Turkle’s own siblings when they were younger.

Turkle confesses to her aunt that she’s searching for Charlie. Her aunt has misgivings about going against her dead sister’s wishes. However, she offers a vital piece of information that eventually leads Turkle to her father with the aid of a private investigator.

Turkle is saddened to discover that Charlie is a self-centered, delusional “rogue scientist” who believes he has disproved Einstein’s theory of relativity. When she was a baby, Charlie ran irresponsible and potentially dangerous experiments on her.