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This was a book club selection.
A good thing about this book was that it brought to light the horrible inhumane practices that were directed towards orphans in Quebec in the 1950s. It was sickening to read about how poorly the orphans were treated once the orphanages were turned into mental institutions.
The book also pointed out the animosity and class struggles between the French and the English living side-by-side in Quebec.
The story was told from two points of view.
Maggie, an unwed teenager, was forced by her father to give up her child as a result of circumstances and the times. However, when she was an adult, it took her awhile to start looking for her baby. It was hard to read about Maggie's comfortable adult life while in the alternating chapters you read about her daughter's abuse at the hands of the nuns.
Elodie, the daughter, suffered unimaginable horrors. When she was finally released, completely unequipped for life in the real world, she was bitter, guarded, furious, and naive. Her struggles continued beyond the walls of the institution.
There were more than a couple of easy coincidences that helped to move the plot along, but, to be fair, the ending did not offer easy answers.
Maggie's father, Wellington Hughes, was a complex character. He was the monster who forced Maggie to give up the baby, but he showed signs of regret later on. It made me think - Is anybody ever only one thing? On what actions are we judged? Our worst? Our best?
There is a special place in Hell for the Sister Ignatias of the world.
The writing was pretty basic. Maggie's teenaged love affair was written as if it had come straight out of the romance magazines that Maggie loved to read.
It was interesting, but it did not live up to the hype.