Lost Daughters by Laurie Alberts
A Mother Seeks Out the Daughter She Gave Up For Adoption
In her novel, Lost Daughters, Laurie Alberts focuses on the horrible effect lies have on the foundation of a family. She is very creative in the way she hooks her reader to the story and unbeknownst to them they are following a lie.
As a young woman, Allie Heller became pregnant. She would give her daughter, Lila, up for adoption only to find herself twenty-one years later filled with guilt and needing to explain to Lila why she put her up for adoption.
Emotional Impact
Alberts’ book is filled with roller coaster thoughts and emotions, beginning with Allie’s desire to see Lila before she is whisked away into the arms of her adopted parents and Lila’s decision to have an abortion. Those emotions are not left only for the characters, but for the reader as well, which makes this book a real page-turner.
The explicit details that Alberts’ has her characters share cuts to the bone of the reader. Allie tells the painful story from her childhood years when she fell off her rocking horse and how her father laughed at her. She went on to tell the story of when she told her parents she was pregnant. Her father calling her names and her mother told her how she was a virgin when she was married. Lila vividly shares the turmoil she goes through while deciding and then having an abortion.
Writer's Goal
As a writer Alberts reveals she is “interested in revealing the lies characters have constructed in order to manipulate others or coexist with their consciences” and reveals that she is “interested in confronting some of these characters with the consequences of their descriptions. Fortunately for those of us who walk this earth as breathing human beings instead of fictional characters, we rarely have to face such mirrors.”
She is also “fascinated by the persistence of deceptions in what we call ‘family history’ and the way these lies move through generations.”
The author hoped to write a book that showed the harmful effects of family lies and with this book, she did just that. She also showed how it is easier for some families to keep the lie going rather than extinguish it.
This book is not for the weak heart and the twist at the end of the novel leaves the reader unbelievably shaken. It is recommended for anyone who is interested in studying the dynamics of family. It is also a good choice for book reading groups.
Source:
Alberts, Laurie. Lost Daughters. Hanover, New Hampshire: University of New England, 1999.
Lost Daughters by Laurie Alberts
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