Customer Reviews

The Magdalen

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In 1952 Dublin in the birthing room of the Sisters of the Holy Saints Magdalen Home for Wayward Girls and Fallen Women, between contractions Esther Doyle thinks back on how she ended amongst the abandoned. Esther knows that in spite of her family rejection due to her unmarried pregnancy and her lover's betrayal she is a good person. From western Ireland, since arriving in the grim place, she wonders if she will ever see the ocean with her child.

Esther has earned her room, board, and medical assistance doing laundry while waiting the birth. She knows her child will reside next door in the almost as grim orphanage, but at least the infant will have sustenance. However, she knows her unborn will receive little else as even the nuns reject the infant's innocence in spite their lofty calling. Still Esther has learned from her sister "Maggies" and dreams of a life for herself with her child outside this convent prison.

With the acceptance of out of wedlock children in recent years, THE MAGDALEN may seem obsolete, but instead, the novel is a powerful historical tale that sheds a light on 1950s morality. The story line brilliantly written in a first person dialogue enables the audience to feel all that Esther feels as she garners empathy from modern day readers to the plights of her and her soon to be born child in a world that condemns even the blameless. Marita Conlon-Mckenna provides fans of mid twentieth century historical novels with a juggernaut of a morality tale that is one of the genre's best in recent years.

Harriet Klausner

It is little wonder that this book was a number one bestseller in Ireland, as it deals with a shameful episode in its history, that of the Magdalen Laundries. Run by the Catholic Church, these were homes that were set up for "fallen" women. Originally set up for prostitutes, they devolved more into homes for unwed mothers. Young women, many of whom were teenagers, who found themselves unwed and pregnant, were often sent there by their families. They would then work in the adjacent laundry of the home until they gave birth, at which time the child would be removed to an orphanage and placed for adoption.

Many of these young women, called penitents by the Catholic Church, were often deserted by their families. They would then find themselves living a lifetime of servitude in the Magdalen Laundries for their transgression. That these laundries existed until 1996 is, in and of itself, scandalous and almost incomprehensible. This book gives a fictional account of such a woman. It is through her eyes that the reader sees the travesty that was known as the Magdalen Laundries.

Esther Doyle was one such woman. She lived an isolated life in rural Connemara, where she was forced by her father to leave school at an early age, in order to help her mother around the house, after her mother gave birth to mentally challenged child in 1944. An intelligent but naive young girl, Esther would spend her days helping her mother and taking care of her baby sister, Nora Pat. After her father disappeared one night, while fishing at sea, and was later washed ashore, having drowned, life became hard for the Doyle family. Yet, left penniless, they managed to survive.

In 1951, Esther, now a pretty teenager, met a young, handsome ne'er-do-well named Conor O'Hagan at a dance. As he was not a local, having just moved to Connemara from West Cork, her family viewed him with some misgivings. Still, Esther found herself in the throes of first love with this young man, only to later find herself pregnant by him and then betrayed, when she discovered that he was also seeing someone else whom he intended to marry.

Coupled with the fact that her younger sister, left momentarily unattended, died an unnecessary death, Esther's mother was less than sanguine about Esther's condition when it was discovered. Reviled by her mother and her brothers for the shame that her condition would bring upon the family, Esther was spirited away by her Aunt Patsy and sent to the Holy Saints Convent in Dublin. While there, she would work in its infamous Magdalen Laundry to earn her keep, while she awaited the birth of her baby.

At the Holy Saints Convent and its Magdalen Laundry, Esther would discover what hell on earth was. Harshly treated, given only the minimum of food necessary to survive, Esther would spend her days toiling in the hot, steamy laundry, along with other such women with whom she bonded in a unique sisterhood. Some of them were women who had spent their entire lives there. Some were the victims of rape and incest, while others were simply young, unwed mothers such as Esther. All were subject to the reign of terror orchestrated by the nuns who ran the Magdalen Laundry.

It is at the Magdalen Laundry, however, that Esther's world view is broadened. It is through her suffering at the hands of those whom she had supposed would have protected her that Esther truly comes of age. When her child is born, Esther comes to think of herself as a person independent of her family and finds the courage to realize for herself a vision of a new life. She envisions one outside the walls of the Magdalen Laundry and one beyond that of the family who had so cruelly renounced her in her hour of need.

This book is written is crisp, clear, terse prose, with little sentimentality. It is a straightforward story that has overtones of the melancholia that often permeates Irish Catholicism. For this book, such is simply fitting. This is a wonderful book that places one of Catholic Ireland's most shameful secrets on public display in a fictionalized setting that perfectly showcases it.

Those readers who are interested in this subject matter will also enjoy the film, "The Magdalen Sisters", which also fictionalizes life in the Magdalen Laundries. One should view it on dvd, because the dvd contains a heartbreaking British documentary, "Sex in a Cold Climate", which contains actual footage of the Magdalen Laundries and interviews of three survivors of the Magdalen Laundry experience.

Esther Doyle is unmarried and pregnant, in the rustic, rural town of Connemara. Her lover has jilted her at the first words of the unwanted pregnancy. Esther is left alone to deal with the scandal. However, the only people Esther expected help from, her family, are ashamed and resentful. Her mother and brothers banish her from the home, sending her to Dublin.

Esther's new home is The Magdalen Home for Wayward and Fallen Home. A laundry, run by nuns, is where she will earn her keep. When her nine months have passed, her baby will taken from her and given up for adoption. Esther and the other women work long, hard hours on their feet and are under the constant watch of the nuns. The women live the lives of prisoners. There is no recreation, no fun. The women are there to pay penance for their sins and ask God for forgiveness. However, these women, otherwise knows as "The Maggies" manage to form strong frienships. Their companionship allows Esther to fight her way out of a deep depression and struggle to reclaim her life. The Maggies help Esther to realize that her baby deserves a happy life and so does she.

I have read quite a few books about the famous "Magdalen Laundries" that were once popular in Ireland. Many are dark and depressing. However, The Magdalen, is slightly more uplifting than most. Of course, this is not exactly a happy story, but these laundries did exist and it is something that many people have never heard of.

I recommended this book to many friends & relatives - it was such a good story. The main character Esther is very likable. She's a strong character with human flaws & your heart goes out to her. The book shows how unfair the double standard is for women vs men in many ways. I just loved it. Every part in the book keeps your interest - makes you want to keep reading until the end. For a woman to become pregnant before she's married in those times & in such a Catholic country could lead a woman to be treated so unfairly by todays general standards in the US. Again, I highly recommend this book. I don't want to say anymore without ruining the story!

that's what I look for in a book, people that get me involved. I get paid to proofread and copyedit books. Over the last 25 years and more than four thousand books, The Magdalen ranks in my top 100.

The topic and the story line are really compelling--there's so much potential. The note on the cover that it's an Irish Bestseller sets readers up with very high expectations. For me, though, the storytelling was bland: not enough vivid description to really put me there (and there's SO much opportunity for this, what with the contrast between the open and wild western part of Ireland and stuffy, confined Dublin) and a lot of awkward dialogue (with a great many exclamation points!) makes the characters seem stilted. There are quite a few moments where things are repeated, or explained so similarly to other things that much of the story's potential momentum is lost. I'm glad I read it, for the topic, but I was hoping for a better experience.

This story as told by Esther tells us where we have been and how important it is to humanity to never return. The reality of the title could not be more in line to a previous story in Christian history that of Mary Magdalen, this the story of a group of young women that were out-cast in Ireland during this period. I feel the writer has delivered the message in sincerity to the facts and to the times and culture of 1950's Ireland and across much of the world with the exception of how these young women were placed in these institutions and stripped of their human dignity and basic human rights.
Why in Ireland and other places were not the men held to task? Why was the moral obligation placed entirely upon the female of a relationship that obviously requires two? No where in the theology of Christianity is the male placed in superiority and the female a lesser being, except by the interpretation of man in the development of early Christianity and in the established church. Not to minimize the help the church apparently provided with food and shelter, but to question why the church took a moral high ground in placing itself in the position of judging these women and their families, thus releasing the males from their responibilities and their Christian duties toward these women? Why do societies worship class distinction above humanity? Why do we as a society hand over personal responibility to an established religion and expect just and fair treatment? These questions present in Ireland then and still today and elsewhere in the world should call everyone to reflection and revision.
Throughout the book we read little to none regarding the father of this child of Esther, why? How could the church stand on a moral high ground in Ireland or elsewhere when its position was truly one-sided and at times inhumanly governed? How could religious orders support this position? The Magdalen presents these issues in their day and and we can read the effects the position of the church and culture had and continues to have today to some extent.
These women are indeed followers of Magdalen, out-cast by the oppression of the times and culture of her day. This book is superb and offers us the experience of the past and a chance to create a brighter future.

The book is very readable and the descriptions of small town family life in an Irish fishing/farming village are well rendered. The first half of the book describes Esther living with her family and the story unfolds in a compelling albeit tragic way. Esther is an attractive heroine with whom it is easy to identify and sympathize. Once she arrives at the laundry in Dublin though the book seems to lose momentum. The book is quite predictable and many of the secondary characters (especially those she meets in the laundry) are not as fully developed as they could be. The author makes the right choice in ending the book on a hopeful but not an unrealistic "happily ever after" note.

I have seen this book on Amazon several times while looking for memoirs about women who have lived inside the Magdalen laundry facilities. I never bought this one becuase I thought it might not touch on my emotions as much as a true story would. Well, I ended up finding this at my local Goodwill so I decided I would go ahead and read it. I'm really glad I did! I stayed up way past my normal bedtime becuase I just couldn't bring myself to put this book down!
The Magdalen is about Esther a country girl from a small fishing community in Ireland in the late 1940's to early 1950's. When tragedy strikes Esther's family leaving Esther and her mother at odds with eachother it makes Esthers situation even more difficult. Esther has a secret and it's not one taken lightly in the Ireland run by the church. She can't hide this secret for long becuase soon it will be showing itself to the world. When Esthers mother finally confronts her Esther is relieved to finally be able to confide in her family, but the reliefe is short lived as tension and anger fill the families small seaside cottage to the brim.
Being a religously devout woman Esther's mother turns to their parish priest to help them find a solution to Esther's problem. Reluctantly Esther agrees to the priest's suggestion that she go stay in a Magdalen laundry facility run by the nuns. It might seem like the right solution to Esther's family, but for Esther it's down right heartbreaking.
Although I really enjoyed this book a lot I only gave it four stars becuase the begining is a bit slow.

Though the tragic story is presented in a simple style, it is totally engrossing in its impact. The reader sees Esther - a model daughter, with varied tragedies in youth, then 'fallen woman' - deal with constant confusion, guilt, and ambiguity as her story unfolds.

I had been somewhat disappointed by a seeming lack of depth, because Esther's thoughts and emotions are not really explored, and other characters seemed peripheral. Yet the action speaks for itself. For example, the bulk of the story concerns Esther's period of residence in the Magdalen laundry, and one sees her struggle with considering options, and having conflicting feelings about all elements of her life.

The underlying theme - where punishment and atonement colour every consideration from the sermon at a funeral to the cold, cruel treatment of the residents - is sadly all too realistic. The book is not a horror story (squeamish readers, especially in light of some recent news stories about Irish Catholic institutions, may wish to know that The Magdalen contains no sexual abuse and little corporal punishment), but is utterly chilling. Esther, initially grateful that the nuns offer refuge when no one else will deal with her, grows to see no Christian love at all in her treatment. Yet the constant (and highly accurate, sad to say) presentation of how sufficient penance means salvation gives an underlying sense that those involved might have thought they were 'cruel to be kind' in leading others to salvation.

Without giving out a spoiler, may I add that it answered a question I'd long harboured: why women who are in such misery (and who are free to leave - this is not serving a prison sentence, for all that the conditions seem those of a reformatory) would sometimes elect to remain at the laundries rather than get another try at a decent life.

It is a fascinating work which I devoured in an afternoon, surprisingly engrossing for all that the themes are very subtly expressed. The characters are not drawn in great depth, and Esther seems an enigma, but it is an excellent tale of conflict.