Mystery

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 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. ( )

This is a sad, tragic tale of abuse of young girls who were placed in a struggling impoverished Quebec orphanage system. When Maggie Hughes's parents learn she is pregnant at 15 years old, her parents gave the baby away and she was raised for a large part of her life in a terrible system of neglect and abuse. In the 1950's, Maggie's daughter Elodie was declared meltally ill, even though her iq was not any where near that category.

Then, at the age of 17 she was allowed to be freed from the instituion due to a new law that took a hard look at what happened at the instituion. Elodie has no skills and after years of terrible, tragic treatment she is living in a world she hardly understands.

In the meantime, Maggie is married to a businessman who wants to begin a family, but Maggie cannot forget Elodie. When Maggie seeks to find her daughter, she realizes that all those lost years she was decevied by her father. Excellently written, this is a tear jearker.

Based on a real life experience, I couldn't put this book down. I highly recommend it for both the story line and the author's excellent grasp of the terrible treatment of children, who were abused by nuns and then released without a place to stay and no skills to help her learn how to adapt. ( )

Want to make into movie or TV series ( )

I was enjoying it but it ended a bit soon so it was OK.... ( )