From his earliest memories of holding his pen, Steffen's memoir recounts the orphanage where he spent two years after the disappearance of his mother who, as all would tell him for years, ran off with the family car never to be seen again. By the end, Craig has taken you on a journey that includes sleuthing his true ancestry and learning of his sometimes tragic backstory.
That journey -- while the journey of one person -- highlights the journeys that each person's life takes. The destination, Steffen maintains, is far less important than the trip itself.
What makes A Family Apart so compelling is Steffen's commitment to ferret out the truth wherever it may lay -- whether in the stories of eyewitnesses, or in the stories he remembers himself. There's doubtless some creative license taken on occasion, but that creativity serves the larger purpose: "Sleuthing the mysteries" of a real life.
That makes A Family Apart to be a genuine search for family rootedness and the emotional impact of that rootedness (or even its lack), in a world that questions whether roots are all that important.
This is an amazing book that leads its readers down a road we should all travel.
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I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, as part of the Speakeasy book review program, in exchange for my honest review here.