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Title: The Magdalen by Marita Conlon-McKenna ISBN: 0-7653-0513-5 Publisher: Forge Pub. Date: 06 March, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Wayward Girls and Fallen Women
Comment: Esther Doyle is unmarried and pregnant, in the rustic, rural town of Connemara. Her lover has jilted her at the first words of the unwanted pregnancy. Esther is left alone to deal with the scandal. However, the only people Esther expected help from, her family, are ashamed and resentful. Her mother and brothers banish her from the home, sending her to Dublin.
Esther's new home is The Magdalen Home for Wayward and Fallen Home. A laundry, run by nuns, is where she will earn her keep. When her nine months have passed, her baby will taken from her and given up for adoption. Esther and the other women work long, hard hours on their feet and are under the constant watch of the nuns. The women live the lives of prisoners. There is no recreation, no fun. The women are there to pay penance for their sins and ask God for forgiveness. However, these women, otherwise knows as "The Maggies" manage to form strong frienships. Their companionship allows Esther to fight her way out of a deep depression and struggle to reclaim her life. The Maggies help Esther to realize that her baby deserves a happy life and so does she.
I have read quite a few books about the famous "Magdalen Laundries" that were once popular in Ireland. Many are dark and depressing. However, The Magdalen, is slightly more uplifting than most. Of course, this is not exactly a happy story, but these laundries did exist and it is something that many people have never heard of.
Rating: 5
Summary: Followers of Magdalen
Comment: This story as told by Esther tells us where we have been and how important it is to humanity to never return. The reality of the title could not be more in line to a previous story in Christian history that of Mary Magdalen, this the story of a group of young women that were out-cast in Ireland during this period. I feel the writer has delivered the message in sincerity to the facts and to the times and culture of 1950's Ireland and across much of the world with the exception of how these young women were placed in these institutions and stripped of their human dignity and basic human rights.
Why in Ireland and other places were not the men held to task? Why was the moral obligation placed entirely upon the female of a relationship that obviously requires two? No where in the theology of Christianity is the male placed in superiority and the female a lesser being, except by the interpretation of man in the development of early Christianity and in the established church. Not to minimize the help the church apparently provided with food and shelter, but to question why the church took a moral high ground in placing itself in the position of judging these women and their families, thus releasing the males from their responibilities and their Christian duties toward these women? Why do societies worship class distinction above humanity? Why do we as a society hand over personal responibility to an established religion and expect just and fair treatment? These questions present in Ireland then and still today and elsewhere in the world should call everyone to reflection and revision.
Throughout the book we read little to none regarding the father of this child of Esther, why? How could the church stand on a moral high ground in Ireland or elsewhere when its position was truly one-sided and at times inhumanly governed? How could religious orders support this position? The Magdalen presents these issues in their day and and we can read the effects the position of the church and culture had and continues to have today to some extent.
These women are indeed followers of Magdalen, out-cast by the oppression of the times and culture of her day. This book is superb and offers us the experience of the past and a chance to create a brighter future.
Rating: 2
Summary: Effective BirthControl for Teenagers
Comment: A lot of feeling sorry for yourself in this book and no redeemable characters. Society was a lot harder on teenager pregancy 50 years ago, especially in Ireland. The nuns provided a home for these girls and I'm sure the nuns didn't live so much better than the girls themselves. This wasn't 1990s America. I guess I'm not such a fan of having teenagers "bring their babies to school every day" and "playing parents" as is accepted today.
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Title: Gracelin O'Malley by Ann Moore ISBN: 0451202996 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: 08 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl by Kate McCafferty ISBN: 014200183X Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 28 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Leaving Ireland by Ann Moore ISBN: 0451207076 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: November, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Suffer the Little Children: The Inside Story of Ireland's Industrial Schools by Mary Raftery, Eoin O'Sullivan, Eain O'Sullivan ISBN: 0826414478 Publisher: Continuum Pub Group Pub. Date: November, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title:The Magdalene Sisters ASIN: B00018D3L4 Publisher: Miramax Home Entertainment Pub. Date: 23 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $29.99 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $24.59 |
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