The Myth of Surrender
by Kelly O'Connor McNees
What does it mean to give up a child? This powerful new novel explores two women whose paths intersect at a maternity home in the "Baby Scoop Era."
The Baby Scoop Era spans almost three decades, beginning in 1945, when young pregnant women were shuttled off to maternity homes to save their families the shame of their unwed motherhood. These women were coerced at best and brainwashed at worst to surrender their children to married parents--"legitimate" parents--many times signing away their parental rights while still under the effects of anesthesia.
These closed adoptions left both biological parents completely in the dark about the health and whereabouts of their children, or a clear understanding of to whom, exactly, they had surrended their child. Deep scars remained in wake of that uncertainty.
In The Myth of Surrender, McNees, the acclaimed author of The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott and Undiscovered Country, explores the path of two women who become friends at a Catholic maternity home. There is Margie, naive and eager to please (and rape victim), and the more worldly, older, (and in a secret inter-racial relationship) Doreen. We follow them through the late stages of their pregnancy, the birth of each of their children, and the tumultous wake of their children's first five years.
While Margie is forced to relinquish her child, she helps saves Doreen from this same fate, aiding her escape the home. But Doreen knows who adopted Margie's son, and holds tight to the secret to protect Margie, and to the secret of who her daughter Summer's father is. Right or wrong, each woman has to fight for herself, and her child.
Vivid and poignant, The Myth of Surrender is remarkable portrait of a chapter of American history which has reverberated through generations.
The Baby Scoop Era spans almost three decades, beginning in 1945, when young pregnant women were shuttled off to maternity homes to save their families the shame of their unwed motherhood. These women were coerced at best and brainwashed at worst to surrender their children to married parents--"legitimate" parents--many times signing away their parental rights while still under the effects of anesthesia.
These closed adoptions left both biological parents completely in the dark about the health and whereabouts of their children, or a clear understanding of to whom, exactly, they had surrended their child. Deep scars remained in wake of that uncertainty.
In The Myth of Surrender, McNees, the acclaimed author of The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott and Undiscovered Country, explores the path of two women who become friends at a Catholic maternity home. There is Margie, naive and eager to please (and rape victim), and the more worldly, older, (and in a secret inter-racial relationship) Doreen. We follow them through the late stages of their pregnancy, the birth of each of their children, and the tumultous wake of their children's first five years.
While Margie is forced to relinquish her child, she helps saves Doreen from this same fate, aiding her escape the home. But Doreen knows who adopted Margie's son, and holds tight to the secret to protect Margie, and to the secret of who her daughter Summer's father is. Right or wrong, each woman has to fight for herself, and her child.
Vivid and poignant, The Myth of Surrender is remarkable portrait of a chapter of American history which has reverberated through generations.
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