Friday Books: Philomena

Philomena: A Mother, Her Son, and a Fifty Year Search by Martin Sixsmith

This book interested me because of the topic, adoption, which I have always found fascinating. Also, I've heard how great the movie is, and so I was curious about the book. (I'll see the movie later; I like to read the book first, if I can.)

If you are squeamish about sex-scene details, don't read this book. There is a tad more detail than I wanted to know, however some of it is pertinent to the story.

The mother gives birth in a convent in Ireland, and the boy is adopted by a family in the USA. This book is the story of the boy's life, as discovered by his mother and a journalist many years later.

Both the boy and the mother experience self-doubt and questions about their innate worth, thanks to the adoption itself and to the treatment of out-of-wedlock births as a terrible sin, the mother a "sinner." The nuns presumably thought they were doing everyone a favor, but their harsh treatment left life-long scars on both baby and mother.

I give the book 3.5 stars.. not quite a four, but still quite a good read. And the baby was born in the same year as I, so it was interesting to read about the attitudes of the time.