You might know Julie Ryan McGue.
She grew up around and in the western suburbs back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and even if you didn’t know her you might recognize the times, places and people in her book, “Twice the Family: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Sisterhood.”
Her story works through an at-once familiar narrative — navigating life, loss, days in the park, driving lessons, vacations, heartbreak and happiness and, in large part, it is the story of a young person becoming an adult. It is, in broad strokes, a story most people share.
But then, her story isn’t so common — least of all back then.
McGue was born a twin by a Catholic woman from another state who had gotten pregnant out of wedlock and by accident and blindly entrusted her newborns to the church, to the city and to the people who lived here then.
This is the story of a family created by chance and then by choice. It’s the story of an adopted kid in a world not quite used to adoptions.
“Twice the Family” is her third book and second memoir, the first memoir being “Twice a Daughter,” published in 2021. That book explores McGue’s search for her birth parents and the legal and emotional hurdles in the search for answers. This memoir is set before that — literally from the first moments of her birth up through the 1980s, when she is set to become a mother herself. It’s a story she’s been telling for years and a story which captivated anyone who heard it.
“Everybody that I told the story to said you gotta write a story about this,” she said. “I started taking some writing classes and one of the classes I took was called Write your Memoir in Six Months.”
Her writing instructor loved it and, as it happened, was an agent who specialized in women’s stories.
“I kind of lucked into being in the right place at the right time and I didn’t have to look for an agent or a publisher,” she said.
McGue’s life has had a fair bit of luck. One of the first fortunate bits was her adoption. McGue grew up in a loving household next to a twin and a host of other siblings, some adopted, some not. And while her life wasn’t perfect — because whose is? — she had a nice time in her house in Hinsdale, which she and her family nicknamed the 501. Along with her family, her book is filled with details of days spent at Waiola Park in La Grange, going to Catholic school and her love of the suburbs bursts from the page.
“I think it’s fun to write about your hometown,” she said. “So many stories are written about New York and Los Angeles, it’s nice to put a spotlight on the suburbs.”
She loves returning to the area, even if things have changed a fair bit.
“I do think La Grange is a little more city, like Chicago, in that it’s bigger and more diverse,” she said.
But a few things remain unchanged: the small-town library, the small-town bookstore — fixtures in a smaller, slower paced community and vital places for authors like McGue.
“I love libraries and I had a library card growing up and the library at La Grange was my favorite thing,” she said.
These days, of course. McGue is always in the library and in local bookstores — in print at least — and on Feb. 18 she will be there in person at Anderson’s Bookshop in Downers Grove. Tickets are $22 and can be purchased online at andersonsbookshop.com.
