After reading Finding Joe Adams by Joe Field, I can say it’s one of the most emotionally honest and gripping personal stories I’ve come across in a long time. The book follows the author’s decades-long journey to find his biological father, a man he never knew and was never told about. What starts as a survival story, abandonment, poverty, abuse, and resilience, morphs into a powerful account of identity, faith, and redemption. We follow Joe from a harrowing childhood in foster care and public housing to his adult years as a lawyer, all while haunted by the mystery of his origins. The turning point comes at age 60, when he finally discovers his father and a whole new family, culminating in a reunion that was captured on national television.

Joe Field’s writing is raw, often unpolished, and deeply human. His tone is not literary, but it hits you hard with its sincerity. He’s trying to tell the truth, and that truth isn’t always easy to digest. What stuck with me was how vividly he remembers pain. Not just his own, but also the impact of his absence on others. His childhood recollections are intense. Some moments are outright heart-wrenching: hiding from foster parents, watching his belongings vanish after yet another eviction, or enduring violence while alone. And yet, he rarely lets bitterness win. Instead, what comes through is a surprising current of humor, humility, and faith.

More than just storytelling, the book carries deep reflections on identity, belonging, and forgiveness. I was particularly touched by how Joe navigated his faith journey, not through sermons, but through the small, often overlooked kindnesses of others and the slow realization that he was never alone. His emotions are never oversold, which somehow made them hit harder. There’s an undercurrent of hope through every hardship, and that’s what makes the book linger. You walk away thinking not about how hard life was for him, but how strong the human spirit can be when it’s anchored by even the thinnest thread of hope.

I would recommend Finding Joe Adams to anyone who enjoys memoirs about resilience, family, and self-discovery. It’s especially powerful for readers who’ve ever wondered about their roots or struggled to make peace with a chaotic past. It’s a deeply personal story that feels universal in all the right ways. It’s not perfect, but then again, neither is life. And maybe that’s exactly what makes this book so worth reading.

Pages: 194 | ASIN : B0841PMGK2