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Using in media res seamlessly, LaFleur takes the reader right into a pivotal moment of his life, one that sends him down memory lane to reflect on his tumultuous upbringing and the constant adversity he faced from the people who were meant to create a sanctuary of growth for him. While the book opens with the death of LaFleur's mother, Mary, sifting through her documents helps the puzzle pieces of his childhood fit better together, providing a narrative of rejection and validation that perhaps was improbable to process as a kid.
The author turns the pages of his life back to his formative years, where the imagery of waiting at his doorstep after school while a priest attempts to heal his mentally troubled mother is downright harrowing. The adolescent years don't get any easier for the author; the scene in which he faces down the barrel of a gun from his stepbrother epitomizes the chaos-fueled life he inherited. Nevertheless, a memoir that begins with abandonment and despair evolves into resilience and hope, marked by a fierce tenacity to fight for a better life, where survival gives way to success.
Thematically, darkness versus light and faith versus failure are imbued in LaFleur's work. It is only faith that allows him, despite his trauma, to make it to the Air Force, meet Christina, and begin to accumulate small moments of hope that become a firestorm of growth and grace. When all authority figures counted him out, it was Jesus Christ and LaFleur's unconditional surrender to his love that ultimately transformed the author's material existence and paved the path for him to give his own family the life that had always eluded him.