Book Review: The Foundling

The Foundling
by Ann Leary
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My first book of 2023 finished; and it was a doozie! The Foundling is about eugenics in American during the 1920s. Not unlike what happened commonly, and even into the 1970s or later with women who were inconvenient, ‘hysterical’, burdensome, or otherwise too independent; husbands, fathers, brothers, etc. would pack them off to a facility. In many cases it was an asylum (aka prison). In Ann Leary’s The Founding it is a community (aka compound) where girls are made to work until they are past the age of child birthing. Essentially a 30+ year sentence if you were shipped off at the age of say 20 years old. All in the name of eugenics.

Eugenics is an interesting, and compelling theory, when it is explained by someone with charisma, fancy medical degrees, or of great prestige. Even Charles Darwin implies that other species (besides humans) inherently cut out the feeble and weak in order to reproduce the best possible animal to survive. Many today may not even realize that they likely believe this to a certain degree; without realizing what it might mean or how it could be construed, used to control populations, and dismiss minority groups. It’s obviously wrong. Period. No one should be told they cannot have children, be locked up, or otherwise sterilized because of who they are; be it race, religion, mental capacity, physical disability or otherwise. It’s disgusting; and yet even as the original ‘scientific’ literature is quoted in The Foundling I can see how compelling of an argument the theory of eugenics makes. History goes on to prove how true this was/is as in WWII Adolf Hitler took the concept of eugenics to its absolute extreme with his concentration camps, genocide, and mass sterilization of anyone who didn’t fit his intensely narrow view of ‘worthwhile human beings’.

Thankfully, The Foundling does an excellent job of taking our leading girl/lady on a journey from belief, to acceptance, to defence, to the utter and complete realization that she was tricked by very smart, charming, and ruthlessly greed folks. Thus the reader also goes on this journey too. Whether you need help to see the evil or not; I’d be shocked to hear someone reading this and not coming out of it with the realization that the greed, power, and dominance of our antagonist characters is obviously, undoubtedly wrong and/or evil; I think readers will have some connection with our leading lady as she learns the world around her is not easily navigated by blindly respecting authority. A lie she was told and believed upon leaving the Catholic orphanage she was raised in.

From page 1 Leary writes a compelling story. She builds up sympathy, and even empathy, for her fictional lead character. While all characters, plots, etc are fictional; there is truth in every line of Leary’s fast-paced novel. It’s clear her research has been done, and she has thought a lot about how one might get drawn in or caught up in something and be fooled for a time. We still see that today; look at those who were fooled by cryptocurrency kings who toted huge returns to investors; all the while embezzling the money and using it to buy themselves mansions while their companies fell further into debt. People want to believe they are inherently better, smarter, stronger, and capable of finding a way to justify those beliefs. For whatever reason (humanity, society, religion, culture, survival instinct, etc), I’m sorry to say, humans have this massive crutch to feel superior to everything and everyone around them.

I don’t want to give too much away regarding how The Foundling reveals and uncovers it’s secrets; as it would be a shame to give them away. I can share that my immediate thought when thinking of a comparison novel is one I read earlier in 2022 called “Looking for Jane”. A novel based on the illegal abortion network of the 1960s and beyond. The Foundling has many similarities in that as the story is unfolding, it reveals horrific moments in recent history that we should all be aware of; as well as shows the reader why it’s wrong to believe the misguided ‘science’ of those times. Instead of lecturing about the practices or choices made; we are shown how they hurt the women involved. How quickly they can turn and be used against women by cunning men (and sadly some women) to control, hide, and otherwise dispose of ‘inconveniences’.

I believe The Foundling is an important historical fiction novel that people should absolutely read and understand it. Take a moment and think of someone, a celebrity (in whatever way), that you look up to; so you question what they say? If you don’t maybe you should? Just because we aspire to be like someone, or love the work or talent someone does/has, doesn’t mean we must accept every inch of their personality, beliefs, and choices as scripture. In fact, I’ve learned over my 40 years of living, that the people you need to question most stringently are those you’re closest to, or those you look up to the most. As they are the most likely to have major flaws you rationalize away so as not to accept that all humans are flawed and all humans are capable of making greedy decisions to benefit themselves. Be it a parent, celebrity, religious icon, best friend or spouse, or from within yourself; decisions always hold a bit of want, need, and greed in them. That is inherent in all humans on a grand scale; and we can only combat it by asking ourselves, and others, a lot of complex, difficult, and even heart wrenching questions.

The Foundling does an amazing job of reminding the reader of these misguided theories and how they come to take root (often resulting in more patriarchal control); while exposing a horrible time of discrimination and imprisonment over women of child birthing age. Not only is the story fast-paced, intriguing, and well written; but there is something to learn about ourselves and human nature from the revelations of our leading girl.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

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