Search - The Magdalen

Heartrbreaking, but realistic portrait of both the humanity of and the stigma attached to unmarried mothers just 50 years ago.

If anyone has seen the movie "The Magdalene Sisters", this book is a milder version of it. It kept my interest but I felt the the main character was not treated as harshly as the stories I've heard about the Magdalene Asylums.

I enjoyed this story about a young Irish-Catholic girl who became pregnant "out of wedlock"--(sounds like a disease, doesn't it?). She was 'graciously' accepted to a home for unwed mothers run by an order of nuns. They agreed to provide a good, clean, place to work (at the laundry service run by the nuns) and live until her baby was born, and then would find a loving Catholic home to adopt the baby. Things were rough in the 50's and unwed women were considered 'wild and wanton, women who had no morals or upbringing'. The were forced to live a hard, austere, life if the "father" chose not to marry her. The mother then gave the baby up for adoption and went back to her home as if nothing had happened. These poor women became so down-trodden that many of them just stayed at the laundry for the rest of thier lives. This is a wonderfully written accoun of that era. It had a fast start and kept up the pace right until the surprise ending. The characters are well-developed and you feel as if you really did know them.