One of the great roles of fiction is the opportunity to see the world through someone else's eyes. In the story of Beautiful Girl, Rachel Simon gives a voice to some who are literally voiceless and tells the stories of people whose stories are never told.
This novel, which spans several decades, opens with Lynnie, or Beautiful Girl, and her friend #42 arriving one rainy night at the home of Martha, an elderly widow whose reclusive life is mostly taken up by corresponding with her far-flung former students. The rain-soaked couple have a newborn baby with them, wrapped in blankets. Number 42 is deaf and mute; Lynnie does not speak either, and seems to have an intellectual disability. Martha realizes that Lynnie has just given birth to the baby, but is able to learn nothing more about them. As quickly as they appeared they disappear, Lynnie taken away by officials from the institution from which they had briefly escaped, and #42 disappearing into the night. But the baby had been hidden. Her existence was completely unknown to the school. So Martha raised her, keeping her identity a secret.
The rest of the story follows three strands: of Martha and the baby as they move about, evading those who would link her back to the school; Lynnie, as she returns to the school and her life after the school; and as #42, Homan, tries to get by in a world where he cannot hear or speak. It's pretty melodramatic and contrived at times, but Simon draws the reader into the characters' worlds, making you care about them and the course of their lives. Martha's heroic choices, Homan's steadfast determination, and Lynnie's unfailing hope will inspire you.
Simon tells the story against the background of the experiences of people with disabilities in the second half of the twentieth century. The "school" where Lynnie lives much of her life, the State School for the Incurable and Feebleminded (the name sounds silly to us now, but is typical of institutions founded in the 19th and early 20th centuries), is fictional, but is based on schools Simon has researched and seen first-hand. (Her sister has an intellectual disability.) Lynnie witnesses and suffers from unspeakable abuses by school staff, an expose by local and national media, subsequent reforms, and the eventual closing of the school. When the school closes, she deals with living in a group home, finding work and getting around in daily life, and becoming a self-advocate, attending conferences and testifying before lawmakers.
In Homan's story, Simon gives us a view to the life of an uneducated deaf man, who spent much of his life totally unable to communicate with most people. He had learned a dialect of sign as a boy, but it was years before he began to learn ASL and speak with other deaf people. Homan's character was inspired by the true story of a deaf boy who was arrested and dumped in an institution simply because officials didn't know what else to do with him. His story is told in God Knows His Name: The True Story of John Doe No. 24, which I haven't read, but will add it to my list!
Simon doesn't preach or shake her fist at the treatment of people disabilities. The Story of Beautiful Girl is, first of all, a story, but there is no question that Simon has a bit of an agenda here. She educates about the history of disability services, she gives the reader insight into the world of people with disabilities, and she helps the reader understand the perspective of people with disabilities.
I was particularly interested in Simon's treatment of religion. Lynnie has dim memories of her family's Jewish heritage; at one point we learn that her family was shunned from the synagogue because of Lynnie's disability. After #42's impromptu funeral, Martha "could not help but wonder how there could be a God if people treated this man as they had, and Lynnie was forced to live in a place like the School--and this child could be doomed to a life of desolation." One of my favorite characters was Kate, who worked at the school and became a friend and advocate for Lynnie. She "found her work an act of penance," a way to live out Jesus' admonition to "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." She also remembered Jesus words in Matthew, "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." In her own family, "she taught her children that every person. . . deserved kindness."
Lynnie had some reflections of her own at her friend Doreen's funeral. When the minister "moved on to talk about her finding eternal happiness now that she was home with the Lord, Lynnie stopped listening. Doreen had never said a word about God, and Lynnie was far from certain she believed in God herself. People who did talk about God, like Kate, said they felt His presence deep in their heart. In Lynnie's heart, she felt nothing. If there was a God, why did Doreen have to die to go home? If there was a God, why did Doreen's father give her money but never visit? If there was a God, why could Lynnie barely see Buddy and Julia in her mind? . . . If there was a God, [Doreen's] parents would have come--eventually. But never had come first."
Besides telling a great story, Simon gives us a lot to think about in our own relationships with people with disabilities. Whatever someone's ability or disability, everyone has hopes and dreams and longs for friendship. Everyone has a story to tell. When we encounter someone with a disability, let's wonder, with Kate, "How many others are out there? How many other lives are hidden, and hearts are seeking?"
No comments:
Post a Comment