By Christina McLaurine
Detachment: An Adoption Memoir, winner of the 2016 Kobzar Literary Award, is about family, trauma, history, and healing. Mireau and his wife Betsy adopt two little boys from Ukraine. Upon their return to Winnipeg, Mireau is confronted with the challenges of building familial bonds and helping his children, Peter and Bohdan, adjust to their new life in a new country. This adjustment period is filled with trials and tribulations that puts a strain on Betsy and Mireau’s marriage. In an effort to understand his sons better, Mireau turns to his family history. His emotionally distant father, who was also born in Ukraine, has a traumatic past. Maybe, if he can better understand his father’s painful and traumatic childhood, he can be a better father and better understand his sons.
Mireau gives readers the opportunity to see the displeasing side of overseas adoption. From the inscrutable bureaucratic adoption process and strain that it can put on a marriage, to the paltry living conditions in the orphanages. Not to mention the challenges of bonding as a family once the process is complete. While the book is about Mireau, Peter and his struggle to adjust commands the reader’s attention and becomes a focal point of the narrative. Their hearts will break as Mireau recounts Peter’s struggle to reconcile being left at the orphanage by his birth mother and trusting his new adoptive parents.
It’s obvious Maurice loves his family, but between being a writer, husband, and parent, he’s having a hard time. Mireau is candid about these struggles and how it affects the relationships he has with everyone around him. It’s impossible not to empathize with Mireau and Peter as they try to navigate through this season of change and pain. As Mireau reflects on the ways his father’s trauma affected him and their relationship, he uses it as a catalyst to ensure the same doesn’t happen with his son’s trauma.
Detachment: An Adoption Memoir is a gripping, heart-wrenching read that tells an unforgettable story about the strength and resilience of family.
Thank you to Freehand Books for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review!