A parent of one of my students recommended Necessary Lies to me. Her book club recently read this novel and were able to Skype Diane Chamberlain during their book club discussion. How cool is that that the author would take time to Skype a book club to answer their questions and chime in on the discussion! I was immediately intrigued as I have read other books by Diane Chamberlain in the past and know that she's a great writer who always tells original stories that make you think. Necessary Lies did not disappoint!
Necessary Lies is the story of Jane and Ivy and the Eugenics Sterilization Program in North Carolina in the 1960's. It is not a light read, nor would I recommend this for your beach bag. It weighs heavy on your heart and bogs down your mind--as a good book can sometimes.
The chapters alternate between Jane and Ivy and are told from their point of view in their own dialect. Jane is a young, newly graduated from college, newly married young woman who decides to forsake her husband's request to be a house-wife and instead decides to be a social worker in rural North Carolina. This decision weighs heavily on her marriage, as her husband, Robert (a pediatrician) feels neglected and insulted by her work. Ivy is one of Jane's clients. She is young, very poor, and basically the only person in her home capable of caring for anyone, so she takes care of everyone: her grandmother Nonnie, her sister Mary Ella, and her nephew Baby William. All four are in the welfare system and all need that help desperately.
We meet other characters along the way: Brenna, Gavin, and Lois (who are all part of Jane's life as a wife of a doctor) as well as Jane's colleagues (namely Charlotte Werkman), and the other folks who live and work on Davison Gardiner's tobacco plantation (including Mr. Gardiner's son Henry Allen, himself and his wife, and the Jordan family). How these characters interact and connect is beautifully and ingeniously scripted. I shall save the details for your own reading. I could never do it justice here in summary form.
The story is a true page turner, and thank heavens for snow days, because I was able to finish this book in a day and would've been mad had I not been able to do so. I did get a bit frustrated with the story at one point yesterday and put the book down for a bit, but ended up getting up early this morning to read before school and was then able to finish the book while I ate lunch.
I only take one issue with the book and am hesitant to even voice it because it might ruin the story for some. So, if you plan to read this book, you might want to stop reading here. I take issue with the infractions made by Jane and how her punishment, if there even was one, was basically glossed over. Perhaps the comment made by Gavin, that Jane was someone to fight for, alludes to the fact that she did not spend time in jail and Gavin, the lawyer, was able to figure out a way to get her out of the mess she caused, but I find that hard to believe. I guess the point is that this part of the story was left out because it wasn't important. What was important was the before and the very long after. Still, that one part just seemed a bit too perfect for me, especially in light of the total imperfection of the rest of the book. Maybe the message, then, is if you do something right, that you know is right, you come out right on the other side. Personally, that never happens to me, so I guess I am just a little suspect.
But, it is an amazing book and well worth your time to read and enjoy. It will make you think--what would you have done if you were Jane? How would you have felt about playing God? Jane does a bit of that herself, and not just with Ivy. With Robert, too. It all makes you scratch your head and wonder how you would deal with a similar situation. One thing is for sure, I am certainly glad I live in 2014, when a woman can make her own choices about her career, her body, and her life.
Happy reading everyone!
:) Dodie
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