Joanna Goodman

In 1950s Quebec, Maggie Hughes, a 15-year-old, becomes pregnant. Her family forces her to give up the baby and to cut off all contact with her boyfriend, Gabriel Phénix. Her decision haunts her in later years so she sets out to find her daughter, but her search is constantly stonewalled. Maggie’s perspective is alternated with that of Elodie, Maggie’s daughter. We learn of her life in an orphanage and then in a psychiatric institution when the Duplessis government of the province had show more many orphans declared mentally deficient in order to receive more funding from the federal government.

The book focuses on a dark chapter in Quebec’s history. I had heard of Duplessis orphans but knew little of the details. The government’s role in what happened to children born out of wedlock, children “born in sin”, is made clear but so is the role of the Catholic Church. Various orders of nuns were complicit in the scheme to maximize federal funding.

The novel also highlights English/French divisions in Quebec. Most of the story is set in the Eastern Townships where both French and English “live in relative harmony – that is, relative to Quebec, where the French and English tolerate each other with precarious civility but don’t mingle the way other more homogeneous communities do.” Maggie’s father, Wellington Hughes, is English and her mother is “pure laine French” so her home is “like the province in which she lives, where the French and English are perpetually vying for the upper hand.” Her father wants his children to speak French because it will help them in business but he sends his children in English schools because “’French is the inferior language’” and “He’s cautioned Maggie many times about French boys, always reminding her that they're mostly poor, don’t finish school, and their teeth rot before they turn forty [because they drink so much Pepsi].”

It is the characterization of Wellington Hughes that is most complex. He is an interesting mix of contradictions. He looks down on French Canadians but he marries a woman who “has never made any effort to absorb even the rudiments of the English language.” He threatens to disown Maggie if she sees the French Canadian Gabriel but has a different opinion of Gabriel’s sister. Much is explained about him in the latter half of the novel so Wellington emerges as a fully developed character who arouses both anger and sympathy in the reader.

On the other hand, Sister Ignatia emerges as the villain who has no redeeming qualities. Her treatment of the children in her care is truly sadistic, but the lies she tells are perhaps her most unforgiveable actions. It is difficult to think of her as a practicing Christian; at one point, she says to Elodie, “’I am your judge, and I judge not only your transgressions today, but all of your sins, as well as the sins of your parents.” At various times she is described as having “black eyes and flared nostrils” and “a menacing half smile” and “bat-like eyes” and a “grim demeanor, cartoonish frown, and harsh voice”. Unfortunately, by not showing any positive traits, the author turns Sister Ignatia into a cartoonish villain.

This book is a disturbing read. Sympathy is certainly felt for Maggie who had virtually no choice but to give up her illegitimate child. She was young and lived in a religious society which had no compassion for someone in her position. But it is the treatment Elodie receives that is most horrific. I kept thinking that surely this mistreatment must be an exaggeration of what orphans endured, but even cursory research reveals that the author’s depictions are accurate.

I definitely recommend this book to Canadians. We should know about this dark episode in Canada’s human rights’ history. I hope to find a book that presents the view of the Quebec children who were sold by Catholic orphanages to Jewish families in the United States.

Note: Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski). show less

Deeply moving story based on real life events. 1950 in Quebec. Novel brings up the Anglo/ French differences in families and neighbourhoods and relationships. Maggie is forced to give up her French, lower class boyfriend because her father wants “ better” for her. Maggie at 17 becomes pregnant and in Catholic Quebec families it is a huge sin. Maggie is forced to give up her baby. This child Eloide, is one of “Premier Duplessis orphans” and becomes part of a corrupt government and show more church conspiracy which hides these normal children in psych hospitals.
It’s an unbelievable story. Unimaginable that this could happen. I knew nothing of this. Sadly it is all too familiar comparable to the residential school situation happening now. show less

Review of Advance Uncorrected Proof

Fifteen-year-old Maggie Hughes, the daughter of an English father and a French mother living in Quebec, falls in love with Gabriel Phenix. Her parents disapprove; her father believes the poor French boy is not good enough for his daughter. To keep Maggie away from Gabriel, her parents send her to Frelighsburg to spend the summer with her aunt and uncle. Before the summer is over, Maggie is pregnant and she must remain in Frelighsburg until the baby is born. show more

Maggie gives birth to a premature daughter and her family forces her to relinquish the child to a foundling home. Elodie, relatively happy and reasonably well cared for, spends the first seven years of her life at the orphanage. But a decision by Maurice Duplessis, the premier of Quebec, turns all orphanages into mental institutions and thousands of children, including Elodie, find themselves confined in institutions where mental and physical abuse is a common occurrence.

As the years pass, Maggie and Elodie remain separated. Is there a way to fix the mistakes and regrets of the past? Do Maggie and Elodie have any chance for a future together?

This well-crafted story, based on the true plight of the Duplessis Orphans in Quebec, Canada, is a condemnation of the government and the religious orders put in charge of schools, orphanages, and hospitals in the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. Since federal funds for hospitals were significantly greater than the funds for orphanages, Duplessis ordered that all orphanages would become mental hospitals, a decision that led to the false classification of multitudes of orphans as mentally defective children.

These facts, carefully woven into the fictional story of Maggie, Gabriel, and Elodie, lace the narrative with the grim reality of the time. Readers will find it difficult to set the book aside but, like many other well-told, based-in-truth narratives, the horror of these events sometimes makes the book extremely difficult to read. Readers should have a box of tissues handy before delving into this heartbreaking story.

Highly recommended.

I received a free copy of this book through the LibraryThing Early Readers program show less

I just finished this "unputdownable" book---I'm so glad I read it! After recently confirming my ancestry roots through DNA, I've been looking for books that tell the story of the French Canadians---my people. Though the events in this story took place about 40 years after my family immigrated, I imagine the social divisions hadn't changed much.

The story of Maggie and Elodie is a heartbreaking one. I found myself angry at Maggie's parents, angry at her... I have known girls who gave in to show more their parents wishes about what to do with their teen pregnancies---and the heartbreak they still deal with. I can't imagine going through it myself. I think the saddest part of this story is the change in Elodie from the spunky, curious, intelligent little girl to the broken, cautious, wasted young woman. It's sick what happened to her. Sicker still that it's a true story.

I want to say something about the way this book was written. This was more of a tell book and less of a show book. Settings and characters weren't painstakingly described---years were skipped from paragraph to paragraph. Normally this kind of writing makes me crazy and I end up not finishing the book. For this story, however, it totally worked---for a couple reasons. I was so emotionally sucked in right from the beginning that I was glad the pace was moving quickly---I didn't feel that desperation of wanting to know what was going to happen next but having to wait 75 pages to find out. Secondly, she crams over 25 years of events into less than 400 pages. It kind of has to be this way.

Even if they're not all that into French Canadian culture, I think most women would really enjoy this story. Be aware that there are parts with some strong language---some of it in French---though, if it were me in some of those situations, I might find myself letting loose an expletive or two, as well. show less