The Story of Beautiful Girl

I very much enjoyed The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon which is set in USA beginning in 1968.  A young girl, Lynnie, has escaped from an institution for the "disabled" with her boyfriend, Homan, then gives birth to a baby girl.  In the stormy night they seek shelter at the home of an elderly retired school teacher, Martha.  However, their freedom is short-lived as the institution authorities find them, but the baby is hidden and Lynnie begs Martha to look after her.  Martha keeps her promise and the reader follows the lives of the main characters over the next 25 years with a chapter devoted to each of them as the years progress.  There are many changes along the way until the past finally  meets the present.  The author has extensively researched the institutions of this kind, of which there were many, where families were encouraged to place their disabled children and "forget about them" for the good of all.  The treatment the "inmates" were subjected to was exposed and these institutions closed down.  They had varying disabilities and the author has based her character Homan on the true story of a deaf black man who was placed in an institution and died there after 50 years. Today many people with similar disabilities can lead productive lives within society.  Beautiful story. 5/5