Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent book and beautifully written.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 April 2010
This is a fascinating and harrowing account of a son who was essentially stolen from his mother by the Catholic nuns, and handed over to a 'good Catholic family' in America.
Unlike other books on this subject which are written mostly in memoir form, Martin Sixsmith's book is written as a novel and allows us the reader to meet lots more characters than just mother and son.
Martin Sixsmith's research is painstakingly accurate and includes some excellent background information into the Catholic Church's power and influence in the 1950s and also opens a window to us the reader as to why the government of the time (De Veleras) allowed the Church to wield so much power, and allowed the Church to treat 'fallen women' and their children in such a cruel and terrible way.
Once Michael, Philomena's son, leaves Ireland bound for his new home and adoptive family, we follow his story right through his difficult childhood to rising to the dizzy heights of Chief Counsel for the Republican Party in the Regan/Bush era.
During this time, Michael searches for his mother, and she for him.
As the book is written in the structure and format of a novel, the reader is treated to a variety of characters, views, opinions and again a unique insight to the workings of the US President's office and his powerful legal team.
But ultimately, this is a tragic story of a mother loosing her much loved son, and his mother.
Martin Sixsmith writes beautifully, and it's clear from the very beginning that he cares for his characters - even those we find difficult to like.
This isn't a story/book about the Catholic Church's abuses in Ireland.
It's much more than that. This is a story about Ireland in the 1950s/60s and the Church's treatment of unmarried mothers and their children;
a story about homophobia in the US and the lack of intervention or support of the US Administration for AIDS sufferers in the 1980s/90s;
of a closet gay man working for a homopobhic employer (the US government at the time) and a story of how trying to reconcile his past with his present ultimately destroyed him - and of a mother who has never forgotten her little boy who was taken from him in such a cruel and cold way.
Factually accurate and beautifully written, it also includes many amazing photographs of the characters and places the reader is introduced to.
Worldwide it's difficult to know how many Anthonty and Philomena Lees are out there.
How many children who were taken for adoption by the Catholic Church nuns are today looking for their mothers - and how many mothers are searching for their children?
We'll never know and many will never understand why their search is so desperate and so important.
But what this story confirms is that that even in death, the bond between a mother and her child can never be broken and love will always find a way through.
Paul Power