B-Mother
by Maureen O'Brien
Published by Harcourt
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Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann
This is the author's first novel and is an unusual story. A young girl, Hillary Birdsong, is dogged by childhood tragedy growing up in Maine. Her lovely childhood is ravished when her beloved older brother dies while applying to a fraternity. Her mother spirals into a deep depression, and leaves Hillary feeling abandoned. At 16, she is partying one summer with a rich boy from New York, and gets pregnant.
At a clinic with her best friend, Shell, she hears the baby's heartbeat, and decides not to abort it, hoping to keep the baby. Her parents crush her hopes, and eventually she is packed off to a Catholic agency, where she can select the adoptive parents. The birth of her son Tom, and their parting, is touching and wrenching.
Hillary he goes on to college, where her roommate needs an abortion, and later she drifts through life, avoiding her hometown, but staying not too far away. She works in an antique store, and meets a young man who is devoted to her. She receives annual letters from the adoptive parents, and deeply misses this son she never knew.
Will he contact her when he turns 18? Will Hillary's mother ever pull herself out of her life of pain, and reach out to Hillary? Will Miles, the baby's father, ever regret how badly he treated her and the baby?
Touching characters fill a sad life that held so much promise, and might yet...as Hillary learns to open up to life.
Armchair Interviews says: Strong story with a message of hope for Hillary and women like her.