Literature -- 3 1/2 stars
This story is based on a shameful period in Canada's history when Quebec (because Canada paid more for inmates than orphans) turned all orphanages into insane asylums All the orphans were declared mentally deficient and their education was halted. Overnight, the children found themselves locked in mental wards and working as unpaid servants. In this story, 15 year old Maggie falls in love with a boy from the wrong side of the tracks and gives birth to little girl. She tells her father the baby's name is Elodie before the sisters whisk the infant away to an orphanage. As Maggie grows up, she is determined to find out if her daughter is happy. The book is divided into sections following Maggie's search served next to sections on Elodie's life. The Elodie sections read stronger than the Maggie sections. While the premise is horrible, the outrage that should scream from the pages is somehow muted, perhaps by the fact that the outrage is focused on one unscrupulous nun rather than the system that gave her the right to mistreat these children in the first place. Not a bad book, but I was still disappointed.
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