Book Review: The Paper Bracelet

I adore Maeve Binchy books. Rachael English's novel, The Paper Bracelet, is recommended for fans of Maeve Binchy. Thus, I purchased the E-book to read during my spring break trip. I wouldn't say I was as sucked in as a Binchy book. Yet, it was an intriguing story. This book made me think of two friends. One is a college pal (adopted at birth). Another is a former student of mine who had a baby at 13, after a friend of her family raped her. Neither of these cases played out in a despicable group home for unwed mothers. Still, rubbing shoulders with their stories burned deep empathy for young women who become pregnant outside of the safe confines of marriage. Society has not treated such women with the compassion and dignity they deserve.

Indeed, it was hard to read of the conditions many young unwed mothers faced. Their families sent them away to erase the mark of embarrassment. These homes often forced them to go by aliases (dehumanizing) and expected them to do manual labor to earn their keep. But the hardest facet of their experience came after they had given birth. I cannot imagine how young girls survived. What a unique torture to carry a child within you, endure scorn, stigma, and ridicule, and then suffer the greatest hardship, the stealing of that child! They imprisoned and chastised these young girls. They stripped them of the greatest bond a woman can know. Oh, the ache! The injustice!

When Katie's husband dies, she sets out on a new adventure. She unearths a box of baby identity bracelets she has kept for years. Working in a home for unwed mothers was difficult, but maybe Katie can give back now. She hopes to reunite mothers with their stolen children, sent to be raised by more respectable couples. She posts a notice on an adoption board and, with the help of her niece Beth, seeks answers that are often hard to find.

This book taps a gamut of emotions lurking in this societal scar. So many perspectives cry out to be heard. Mothers lost the babies with whom they had bonded. The children lost a sense of identity, always wondering over the whereabouts of their birth parents. To walk a mile in these shoes is painful.

I struggled to keep the characters straight because the many mothers and children went by different names. This is an aspect rooted in historical practice, so I cannot fault the author. Indeed, at the end of the book, the author expresses her battle with fleshing out the characters when her journalistic tendencies wanted to pour forth all the information she was gleaning through research. I would have welcomed more information. It is a fascinated and troubling story from history. We live in a broken world, and our responses to brokenness fail to heal. Either of my friends could have lived out this story. I thank the Lord they didn't.