Customer Reviews

The Home on Gorham Street and the Voices of Its Children

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This book provided me with a wealth of details about my father's upbringing. He grew up at the Home but passed away when I was two. Until reading this book, I knew only a little about the Home and its impact on its residents, just scattered tidbits. For that reason, the book was a big help to me.

Unfortunately, the author never interviewed my mother, a peculiar omission given the degree to which he used my father's life as a case study in the book. The book includes a characterization of my parents' marriage that does not jibe with my mom's recollection, a characterization she found hurtful. I wish the author would have sought to interview her. As I understand it, he was steered away by others he did use as sources, who wanted to spare her the dredging up of sad memories. He made a mistake in following their advice. If after talking to her, he concluded that his version was accurate, that at least would have been intellectually honest; to simply take the word of others about the nature of a marriage without interviewing the remaining living party to that marriage was simply sloppy.

Nonetheless, I am indebted to the author. His book gave me a look at a time and place about which I have always been enormously curious.