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Ivy Hart and Jane Forrester are separate people with separate lives going in separate directions until their paths cross in 1960 on a tobacco farm in North Carolina.\u00a0 Jane is the freshman social worker assigned to watch out for the welfare of Ivy\u2019s family who are all tenants on the tobacco farm.\u00a0 Jane feels very out of her league as she struggles with trying to help Ivy (who battles epilepsy), Ivy\u2019s aging grandmother (who is growing weaker with each passing year), Ivy\u2019s older sister (who battles mental illness), and Ivy\u2019s nephew (who is always getting into mischief, the way toddlers do).\u00a0 To make matters more complicated on the farm, with so many teenagers and young adults living in such close quarters, the matter of a child being born out of wedlock into a tumultuous environment is not a matter of if, but when.\u00a0 Despite Jane\u2019s new husband\u2019s disapproval of breaking traditional roles expected of the wife of a physician, she forges her own way which takes her down an unconventional path of guardianship over and eventual friendship with her clients.\u00a0 When Jane discovers a disturbing, yet acceptable, policy among social workers of the time, she faces a moral dilemma that will either break her or break the family that has placed their trust (and love) in her. \u00a0What she chooses to do next will change her life, and the lives of everyone in the family, forever.<\/p>\n
Why I read it: Recommendation in an online book group<\/p>\n
Trigger warnings: elective sterilization, unexpected death<\/p>\n
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I loved this book.\u00a0 I loved how the author developed each character and helped the reader understand the complicated relationship between each of them.\u00a0 They all needed something from each other, and they all provided each other with something only they could give.\u00a0 Jane not only provided services for the family, but she also provided the family with a glimpse of \u201cthe outside.”\u00a0 Each member of the family taught Jane lessons about herself and the ways of the world that she would have never learned by only spending her time with members of the upper echelon of society.<\/p>\n
Also, I had no idea that there was even such a thing as the Eugenics Sterilization Program.\u00a0 To say I was horrified would be putting it mildly.\u00a0 I ended up going down a rabbit hole the night that I finished the book as I researched more about this horrific program.\u00a0 This.\u00a0 Actually.\u00a0 Happened.\u00a0 I almost read this book as a cautionary tale; what happens to us as a species when we try to control the outcome of a person\u2019s life?\u00a0 What do we devalue in the process of trying to intervene even though our intentions might be good?<\/p>\n
This book followed a logical progression of events, and it flowed very well.\u00a0 The characters were relatable and realistic.\u00a0 It was one of those books that stays with you long after you finish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"