Simultaneously heart-breaking and heart-warming, this fictionalized story based on true events evokes sorrow and smiles and can bring about sleepless nights as the reader becomes invested in knowing what happens to the five siblings who are the heartbeat of this novel.
The true events that this story is inspired by surrounds the dealings of Georgia Tann who in the 1930s ran a corrupt adoption agency in Memphis, Tennessee. Children of poor families were kidnapped or deceitfully signed over into her care by parents not aware of what they were agreeing to. After placing the children in orphanages ran by the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, Ms. Tann then facilitated adoptions of the children into homes of wealthy couples.
The Foss siblings are indeed part of a poor family that lives on a shanty boat with their parents on the Mississippi River. However, they are well-loved and cared for to best of their parent’s abilities and are in no way abused or neglected by them. When their father has to reluctantly take their mother to a hospital due to problems that arise during childbirth, Rill the oldest sibling at twelve years old is placed in charge of the others until the parents can return. It is during this time the five children are caught in the web of Georgia Tann’s horrible schemes when they are taken from the boat and moved to an orphanage.
The novel actually jumps back and forth in time with the second story-line set in the present and following the actions of Avery Stafford. Avery is a lawyer, born into a wealthy family of prestige. She has returned home to Aiken, South Carolina to assist her ailing Senator father. As a successful federal prosecutor she is also being groomed both by her family and her father’s aide as a potential successor to her father’s Senate seat if his declining health continues. Additionally, she is being not so subtly pushed by her mother and future mother-in-law into setting a long awaited wedding date. A chance encounter with an elderly woman at an assisted living facility sets her on a journey that raises questions about a possible long-held family secret, as well as her willingness to continue on a path that seems more set by her family than her own choices.
Lisa Wingate has produced an engaging narrative that as I stated above at times breaks the reader’s heart as a witness to the sufferings endured by Rill and her siblings. Yet, there is an inspirational message in there as well as we see what determination and strength within a loving family bond can bring about. Personally, I found the sections that detailed Rill’s part of the story in the past as a much better written part of the book. The descriptions of place and events seemed much better crafted than the present day portions of the story. That said, the weaving together at the end of the book of the two separate story lines and their ultimate intersection bring about a satisfying ending to both. Taken together, both story lines shed light on the balance that must be taken in choosing to what extent our bonds to our families must be adhered to. Rill teaches us that there are times when we must fight with all we have to stick together. While, Avery’s lesson is that there are times when one must fight against some constraints that are placed upon them. In the end, however, both lessons show that love and devotion are key in handling each situation.
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Notes from a Book Nerd 