Ann LearyRecensioner
Författare till The Good House
Recensioner
At 17 and having grown up in an orphanage, Mary is naive and awestruck by the glamour and power of Dr. Vogel. Then she sees an inmate of the village that she grew up with in the orphanage. Lillian is characterized as a mental defective by the home, but Mary knows from experience that is far from the truth.
Part of the narrative illustrates how Mary is torn between what she knows is right and the gas-lighting by the powerful Dr. Vogel. There are also graphic descriptions of how the institutionalized women were abused and forced into labor for the powerful people in the community as well as for the institution. All while being characterized as being "for the good of the women and society".
The story starts out slow as Mary's character is slow to develop. I almost gave up until I hit the 6th chapter. There is a bit of suspense in Part 4 of the book, with a surprise ending.
Part of the motivation for Hildy knowing everyone else's business is that it gives her an advantage in the local real estate market when people's lives begin to fall apart and homes go up for sale.
Woven into the story is a wealthy young mother, Rebecca, a client of Hildy and new to the small town. And the psychiatrist, Peter, who rents office space in Hildy's building and whom Hildy has known all of her life.
The story is a pretty accurate depiction of progressive alcoholism in a high functioning alcoholic.
In this story a young woman comes of age to discover that her benefactors operate a grizzly factory for exploiting female labour for “the public good.” It is based on the very real history of asylums for non-conforming women, women considered “feebleminded” by eugenicists and sanctioned by male-dominated institutions.
At a time when the first fruit of economic success, suburban growth, public health, and scientific breakthroughs were easing the difficult life of women, America found a way to punish the non-conformists.
Unlike the native populations they had wiped out, unlike the blacks they chained to ignorance and poverty, and unlike the immigrants who fed the belching factories of Pittsburgh and mines of the west, women were given the vote and in this interpretation, a Pyrrhic victory.
Many women who didn’t conform were sent to institutions catering to theories of white supremacy, essentially eugenics labs for the unfortunate.
This story indicts white society as complicit in Jim Crow, in the tyranny of men over women’s lives, and of long discredited scientific principles.
This story really is about a terrible chapter in American medicine, but in the context of the time, not a terribly unique one for the American experiment.
It is worth remembering that the same as the events in this story, Southern legislators were finding ways to entrap black youth in a prison system to benefit white businesses.
This was America at the frontier.
Worse still, and although it us not part of this story, there is plenty of evidence to believe that Germany’s Nazis used American methods as a template for their own racial purification campaigns.
The Good House is set in a small community outside of Boston. Hildy Good is a well-respected, successful real estate agent who knows everyone and what’s happening in town. She’s divorced with two adult daughters, and one grandson. Her daughters organized an intervention because they perceived Hildy as drinking too much. We meet Hildy upon her return from rehab.
Hildy maintains a busy schedule with her business, babysitting her grandson weekly, and spending time with her two dogs. For the most part, her evenings are a bit lonely and being completely abstinent from alcohol isn’t that interesting for Hildy. She sells a house to a couple new to the area and becomes friends with the young wife, Rebecca. The two ladies begin spending time together sharing secrets and a little wine.
Commonly, addiction is progressive, and Hildy’s alcohol use isn’t the only thing in this community that escalates out of control. Many members of this community become apart of the story with their secrets and life struggles.
I was hooked on this story from the very beginning! Ann Leary’s writing is engaging and fascinating. She made me fall in love with her cast of characters, despite their flaws. The description of this book includes the phrase, “darkly comic,” which is perfectly accurate. There is a lot of humor in this story, along with some very seriously frightening, painful moments. As much as I didn’t want the story to end, the conclusion was beautiful.
As I previously mentioned, I borrowed the audiobook from my local library with the Libby app. The story is told from the perspective of Hildy Good and narration by actress Mary Beth Hurt was absolutely perfect!
The Good House has been made into a movie staring Sigourney Weaver as Hildy Good and Kevin Kline as Frank Getchell, Hildy’s love interest. I’ve included the trailer below for your convenience. (Please see the link below for my blog.) The movie looks fantastic! (I’m off to watch it now! 😁) And the story line appears to follow the book quite closely, so it gives you an idea of the treat you are in for when you read the book.
I have photos, videos, and additional information that I'm unable to include here. It can all be found on my blog, in the link below.
A Book And A Dog
I enjoyed my time with the story.
Our MC is an older woman, still active in work. There was a bit of romance with an old HS bf. Their relationship comes with the reality of their age and their changes. Their shared time together in their glory (and currently the alcohol) was some of the glue that kept them friends and occasional lovers. The MC's struggles with alcoholism, including her blackouts causing most of the tension/drama/mystery in the story, was interesting.
Some of the sections were 5*, give me more, more, more. (That is a bit of a throw-back to the story)
The inner dialogue of our MC regarding drinking, or the hiding of drinking, or the lies you tell yourself to okay the drinking, or the driving, or the phone calling while buzzed.... seemed spot on and makes me wonder what experience of the author's allowed her to portray it so well.
I was impressed by this author. It's the first time I've read her work and will see what else there is published.
ETA: Just watched the trailer. I'll skip the movie it's too cleaned up. Frank is the garbage man, sloppy, balding. Hildy isn't the beautiful Sigourney Weaver. She is an elderly, out of shape woman who likes to drink alone. And she didn't go swimming in her bra and pants at sunset! She was butt ass naked in the darkness and the moon!
This is about a girl named Mary Engle in 1927, who is 18 and gets hired to be a secretary for a Doctor and a woman Doctor at that. Mary is instantly in awe and full of admiration for this Doctor Agnes Vogel, who's in charge of the remote but scenic institution for mentally disabled women called the Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. As it turns out Dr. Vogel was the only woman in her class in medical school and she spoke out about women's suffrage. Now Dr. Vogel runs this public asylum and everyone admires her and how dedicated she is to taking care of these poor and vulnerable women under her care.
The problem starts when Mary learns and then sees a girl from her childhood orphanage is one of these poor women at the asylum under the Doctor's care and it doesn't make sense to Mary why this girl from her childhood, Lillian, is there at this mental institution. Lillian approaches Mary to ask her in secret to help her to escape from this asylum and Mary doesn't know what to think or what to do about it. What happens and the sequence of events that come after Mary decides what to do with Lillian and whether to help her or not leave them with life-altering consequences.
It's a bit of an emotional rollercoaster ride with some twists and turns that threw me off a bit. I was shocked by some of what I read and heard in this story and wonder what things were really like back then. This is the second historical fiction book I've read recently about how poorly women were or could be treated back then in the late 1800s and early 1900s etc. This is the second book I have read about a mental institution for women that was more like a prison and not used for giving real care to those who were in need of it. It's a bit disturbing reading about these kinds of things and makes you wonder. I would recommend this book and further reading/researching on this kind of thing in history too if that interests you like it did me.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and Scribner/Marysue Rucci Books for letting me read and review this very interesting read. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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CarolHicksCase | 66 andra recensioner | Mar 12, 2023 |
CarolHicksCase | 66 andra recensioner | Mar 12, 2023 | This story is both horrifying and inspiring.
Set in the 1920s, the study of Eugenics in full swing, Mary, who spent her formative years in a Catholic orphanage before her aunt took her in, is a naïve young woman who is beyond grateful to find a job that will get her away from her aunt and give her a sense of independence.
She accepts a typist/secretarial position at 'The Nettleton State Village for Feeble-minded Women of Childbearing Age'- working for the highly respected Dr. Agnes Vogel, whom Mary all but worships.
As fate would have it, Mary soon recognizes one of the inmates- a girl she knew at the orphanage as a child. The girl she knew was not at all feeble-minded. But Mary doesn’t dare tell anyone for fear of being fired.
The longer Mary works under Dr. Vogel, she begins to notice some unlawful and unethical practices at the institute, but again, she keeps quiet. It wasn’t until her old friend asks to meet her and Mary meets a journalist who helps pull the wool from her eyes, that Mary begins to realize the esteemed Dr. Vogel is, in fact, a monster- one she must take steps to expose…
Whew! This book was intense. The subject matter alone is one that should make the hairs stand up on the back your neck- but the author sets the stage for one riveting, nail biting, edge of your seat drama. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough!
While this topic will make you squirm in your seat, shocked at how the popularity of eugenics was so widespread and supported! The author handles this through the book’s characters, without being heavy handed, which also allows the characters to develop, grow and strengthen. While the story is about a shameful period in our history, it is just as much about having the courage of one’s convictions.
Overall, I thought the story was well-balanced, getting the point across, but also giving the reader a rewarding story with a lovely, but strong conclusion. Well done!
Inspired by a true story, this is a frightening example of how people were treated when they didn't fit the norms of society. More exposure of these stories will bring this cruelty to light, and hopefully prevent its recurrence.
Although Mary Engel's father is alive, she was raised in an orphanage until the age of 12 when her father reclaimed her and dropped her off, unwanted and unwelcome, at her aunt's house. It's 1927 and Mary is attending stenography school when she meets Dr. Agnes Vogel, a respected psychiatrist, one of the few women in her profession, and a hero of Mary's. Dr. Vogel invites Mary to become her secretary at the remote Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. Initially Mary believes that the women held at the asylum are of limited mental capacity and that their incarceration at Nettleton is a kindness to them. Then she recognizes a woman who was raised in the same orphanage Mary was, a woman who is most emphatically not "mentally incompetent." As she looks further into Lillian's situation, she unwittingly uncovers the truth about the troubling institute and the doctor at its head. Will she turn a blind eye or will she stand up for the voiceless women, trapped in a mental institution with no hope of release and suffering terrible abuse and cruelty?
The history and practice of eugenics is a shameful one in our history. It is a moral failure of gigantic proportions that required complicity and compliance from too many people. In Mary, Leary has created an initially naïve character who must look to herself and find her moral center before she can acknowledge the great wrong going on around her. She gains strength as the novel goes on and learns to see the complex layers of those around her and to acknowledge the ways in which society has failed, or chosen to punish, women who do not conform to the accepted norms, especially the young women incarcerated in the asylum because their husbands or fathers didn't approve of their behavior. The story itself is dramatic and action packed and Leary manages to weave a recognition of the grievous wrongs of not only eugenics but also racism and anti-Semitism into Mary's moral awakening. Readers will want to race to the end to see what happens to each of the characters in this twisting and surprising novel.
This book is one of the Women's National Book Association's 2022 Great Group Reads.
The woman in charge was a well respected doctor who was well known for her philosophy. Mary Engle comes to work as a secretary and is soon taken under wing by Dr. Vogal even living in her house. At the same time, she recognizes a woman who she was friends with in the orphanage where she grew up. At first, thinking there was really something wrong with Lillian, but comes to find out the truth of how Lillian was sent there.
The story is very believable and is based on historical fact - just another example of how women had no control over their lives in the past. The ending was especially well written.
Set in 1927, eighteen-year-old Mary Engle is hired to work as a secretary at a remote but scenic institution for mentally disabled women called the Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. Fiction inspired by research the author conducted into her grandmother's life. These American institutions were similar to Ireland's Magdalena laundries, with the added twist of declaring the women mentally incompetent along with immoral, institutionalized to prevent breeding.
Mary Engle was a foundling. She was raised in a Catholic orphanage where she felt she belonged, if not loved. She was considered a half-orphan because she had a father who paid for her upkeep. At age 12, he came to get her and brought her to live with an aunt. He was a stranger, though, and he soon returned to work at a logging camp. She continued to live there, but was treated like hired help. When she graduated high school, she secretly interviewed for a job working at a home for females who were either suffering from diminished cognition or were wayward girls kept there until they were past child-bearing age. It allowed her to escape from what had become an uncomfortable life. She would discover that many others were in need of escape from far worse conditions.
The doctor in charge of the Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age, was Dr. Agnes Vogel. Mary soon begins to idolize this successful woman at a time when many woman had few options. The doctor soon began to trust Mary, and Mary is given promotions and opportunities, even to attend college.
The fly in the ointment, however, is that Mary recognizes one of the inmates from her days at the orphanage. If she admitted that she knew her, she would be fired, so she kept their former friendship a secret. When she knew her, she was quite bright and had a beautiful singing voice. She didn’t think that Lillian Faust was feebleminded; she had been quite intelligent. She wondered if Lil had had an accident which caused some brain damage, but she discovered that her crime was her relationship with a black man, a musician, a relationship that occurred outside her “marriage”, that in the 1920’s was a crime that might cause Graham Carr, her beloved, to be imprisoned or worse. It was a relationship that infuriated the man she lived with, and he had her sent to Nettleton after the birth of the interracial child which was not his.
As Mary grows more aware, she also discovers that Lillian wants to find her child when she gets out. She wants Mary’s help. Lillian and Graham can live in England without fear. Mary soon begins to question the activities at the Village and the reason some of the women are there. There is a work program, and one of the girls becomes pregnant. The home she was working in continues to have girls work there, although the man is a predator. She wonders why that is allowed.
When Mary becomes friendly with a nurse at the community, Bertie Nolan, she introduces her to a journalist, Jake Enright, and they fall in love. Mary confides in him. There is a major problem, besides his profession which endangers her employment when he publishes information she is accused of passing on, the major problem is that Dr. Vogel, the head of the Nettleton Village, also objects to his religion. He is Jewish.
Mary grows more and more mature and aware of what she must do. Will she be a coward or rise to the occasion? She discovers that Dr. Vogel is very manipulative and turns a blind eye to the abuses some of the girls suffer. She is also a very heavy drinker. She protects herself and the Community above all else, and even goes so far as to accuse Mary of murder, when an inmate escapes, and she also accuses her of crimes Dr. Vogel has actually committed, like smuggling in alcohol that is not for medicinal use.
The story introduces the problems of the times; there is racism, anti-Semitism, and misogyny. Women, Blacks and Jews have few legal rights and few defenders. When Mary took the job, she was totally naïve about the workings of the world. As the months passed, she witnessed behavior that shocked her. Finally, she became more aware of what was going on in her surroundings and took a stand against the abuse. Will she be successful? Will she be able to help some of the inmates who do not seem to belong there? Will she be able to protect anyone or will she endanger many because of her impetuous actions. Will Sister Rosemary’s words prove true, that foundlings are always lucky?
The story sometimes seems to lack credibility and sometimes even seems like a fairy tale, but there are parts of it that will capture the reader’s attention, so I encourage the reader to stick with it, even if just to understand the degradation some were forced to endure in America. The conditions, practices and behavior that were in vogue then, have largely, long since been abolished, but some remnant of the disrespect for others still remains.
I recommend a print version of the book, because although the narrator does the varied voices well, some of the voices give some of the characters personalities that seem unpleasant or too immature and gruff, at times
This was a very compelling read. I found it hard to put down. The characters were well developed and realistic. The plot moved quickly, unraveling secrets as it went. Overall, highly recommended.
Leary takes us to 1927 England and The Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. A time when when eugenics was seen as progressive social science. Uh huh.
Mary Engle is eighteen and grew up in an orphanage. She's excited to be hired as a typist by Dr. Vogel, the female doctor in charge of the institution. We see the entire book through Mary's eyes. She is portrayed in the beginning as an innocent, used to taking orders, afraid of making a mistake and eager to please her employer. While that worked for me in the beginning, I slowly found myself slowly beginning to dislike her. While it's human nature to protect one's self, Mary takes everything Vogel says as gospel and turns a blind eye to what's actually going on. To be fair, she does start to notice after she encounters Lillian, an old friend from her orphanage that has been sent to the institution. I lost count of the number of times I heard the phrase "I can't lose my job". The romantic plot line for Mary was sweet in the beginning, but the scene with her 'awakening' felt like an afterthought and fell flat for me. It seemed very out of character. The relationship as a whole felt one-sided.
However, Leary does a great job portraying the antagonist, Dr. Vogel. Her actions and dialogue riled me greatly. This is the character that rang true. I had a hard time with the words used to describe the patients even though they fit the time period being portrayed. Lillian was also well portrayed and she was easy to get behind. She hasn't given up or given in.
The last quarter of the book picks up speed and action. For me, this was the part that kept my attention. I liked Leary's premise and the familial connection. I thought her depiction of the institution was well detailed. And from a historical point, very interesting. But, I just didn't like the lead character. So, for me, a three.
I chose to listen to The Foundling. The reader was Laura Benanti. She did a fabulous job capturing the character of Dr. Vogel. The voice she used is perfectly condescending, superior and just oozes entitlement. She provides a very innocent, unsure, subservient tone for Mary that suited the character. But, as I grew further annoyed with Mary, the voice started to grate on me. Benanti creates new voices for many players, both male and female. Her voice is clear and easy to understand. The speed of speaking is just right
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*highly recommend