The Story Of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon- 346 pages
Book Blurb:
On a stormy night in small-town America, a couple, desperate and soaked to the skin, knock on a stranger’s door. When Martha, a retired schoolteacher living a safe and conventional life, answers their knock, her world changes forever.
For they are fugitives. Lynnie, a young woman with an intellectual disability, and Homan, a deaf man with only sign language to guide him, have escaped together from The School for the Incurable and Feebleminded, a brutal institution where people with disabilities are left to languish, shuttered away from the world.
In a moment of despair, they reveal that Lynnie has a newborn baby. But, moments later, the police bang on the door. Homan escapes into the darkness, Lynnie is captured. But just before she is returned to The School, bound and tied, she utters two words to Martha: “Hide her.” And so begins the unforgettable story of Lynnie, Homan, Martha, and baby Julia – lives divided by seemingly insurmountable obstacles, yet drawn together by a secret pact and extraordinary love.
For they are fugitives. Lynnie, a young woman with an intellectual disability, and Homan, a deaf man with only sign language to guide him, have escaped together from The School for the Incurable and Feebleminded, a brutal institution where people with disabilities are left to languish, shuttered away from the world.
In a moment of despair, they reveal that Lynnie has a newborn baby. But, moments later, the police bang on the door. Homan escapes into the darkness, Lynnie is captured. But just before she is returned to The School, bound and tied, she utters two words to Martha: “Hide her.” And so begins the unforgettable story of Lynnie, Homan, Martha, and baby Julia – lives divided by seemingly insurmountable obstacles, yet drawn together by a secret pact and extraordinary love.
My Review: 3.5 stars
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These unique characters, the situation they were in and how their lives intersected throughout the book made for a good story. Some books move slow with a purpose while this book just read slow and I found myself skipping details, which I usually never do. Although I liked the characters and felt the author did a beautiful job with her descriptions/characterizations of them, none of them will resonate with me now that I’ve closed the book. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy my week with this book and it’s an overall good story.
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This book put me through all my emotional range. I would read in wonder that we treated people in this manner in the past and not so sure we still don’t when someone is different, that there was such good in people. I thought about my own elderly mother and would/could she do the same thing. When a character I cared about was off the paper for a bit I was repeatedly surprised by what had happened to them while they were not in the forefront of the book. I would find myself laughing or breaking into a short burst of tears as I read during lunch or in my office and wondered though didn’t terribly care what the people around me thought of my outbursts to a book. I so cared about every character including the not so pleasant ones. I felt actual emotional connections to many who I wished I could have known (had this not been fiction). I now look internally at how I react to others and how my adopted children feel and react to others.