The writer and journalist Harrison Mooney discusses his new book Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self Discovery (Patrick Crean Editions, 2022), with Joseph Planta.

Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self Discovery by Harrison Mooney (Patrick Crean Editions, 2022). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Invisible Boy

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Harrison Mooney joins me now. His book Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self Discovery has just been published. It is a powerful, unforgettable book that recounts his upbringing as an adopted infant by a white evangelical family. This takes place in Abbotsford, British Columbia, where Harrison is made to participate in his family’s revivalist church, while at home his racial identity is mocked and derided. He’s gaslit, and abused, and it seems for being Black. As he grows up, he contends with racism, overt and internalised, and begins recognising and understanding his story. He seeks his birth parents, and while the outcome in meeting both his mother and father are different, he begins to understand what was kept from him by his adopted family, and begins to understand the meaning of his life. And while the book is serious talking about identity, racism, transracial adoption, history, religion, and paranoia, the book is inflected with Mr. Mooney’s humour. It is a well-worth experience; necessary, urgent, as well as important. Harrison Mooney is a writer and journalist. He worked at the Vancouver Sun for nearly a decade as a reporter, editor and columnist. His writing has also appeared in the National Post, the Guardian, Yahoo, and Maclean’s. @HarrisonMooney is his Twitter handle. This new book is from Patrick Crean Editions, which is an imprint of HarperCollins. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, in person as it were, Harrison Mooney; Mr. Mooney, good morning.

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