‘Twice the Family’ explores the adoption of twins
(Mar. 11, 2025) — A successful memoir usually has a hook that draws a reader in, something in an author’s background that strongly resonates.
“Twice the Family, A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Sisterhood” is Julie Ryan McGue’s prequel to “Twice a Daughter,” her award-winning memoir of adoption. And there lies the hook: adoption.
What caught my attention was not only adoption, but a story of twin sisters adopted together within weeks of their birth.
McGue sealed the deal for this reader when at the end of chapter one she writes about being adopted with her twin: “She and I belonged to one another before our births and every day since, and even though we never felt the embrace of our birth mother, we were welcomed into the arms of a couple eager to start the family of their dreams.”
I was ready to read a memoir that appeared to offer a story not filled with drugs, molestation or other equally, deeply distressing life experiences. I was not disappointed, but rest assured, life in her adopted family was filled with many difficulties, problems that came in multiples, much like she and her sister.
In fact, the twins became the answer to their childless parents’ dream of having a family. So intense was their desire for a family that, while stationed in Europe, they visited Lourdes, praying for the miracle of pregnancy. There were miscarriages, and back home, by the time they filled out adoption papers, they even checked the box indicating that they would accept twins.
Their parents’ Catholic background is an important factor in the girls’ childhood, but I think it could have been any other family-centered religious faith.
Problems? You bet. There were more miscarriages, and then the miracle of births. The twins had siblings, but siblings who were not adopted. “Twice the Family” works its way through all the things most children experience, except experienced as a twin.
The girls knew they were adopted, and the author is open about her desire to find out who her birth parents were. This was even more true as she grew older and had issues with her adopted mother.
What I found especially satisfying was understanding what it was like to be both a twin and an adopted child raised in a family with strong expectations. She needed, like all daughters, to know who she is, who she wants to be both within and outside her family. How she manages her way into an adulthood that includes more than a few hurdles is refreshingly honest.
“Twice the Family” examines the adoptive life, the complexity of such a family, the bonds of twins, sisters, siblings, parents, and religion. Growing up takes courage, love and trust in oneself. McGue’s memoir is worth the read.
Visit Sunny Solomon’s website at bookinwithsunny.com for her latest recommendations or just to ‘talk books.’
Sunny Solomon
Sunny Solomon holds an MA in English/Creative Writing, San Francisco State University. She is a book reviewer for “The Clayton Pioneer” and her poetry and other writing has been published in literary journals, one chapbook, In the Company of Hope and the collection, Six Poets Sixty-six Poems. She was the happy manager of Bonanza Books, Clayton, CA and Clayton Books, Clayton, CA. She continues to moderate a thriving book club that survived the closure of the store from which it began. Sunny currently lives next to the Truckee in Reno, NV.