The Whipping Club: A Novel [Paperback]

Deborah Henry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2012

The Whipping Club explores the sacrificial secrets we keep to protect our loved ones and the impact that uncovered secrets have on marriage, family and society. Both a wrenching family drama and a harrowing suspense story, it chronicles an interfaith couple's attempt in 1960's Ireland to save their son from corrupt institutions. "A powerful saga of love and survival." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Henry weaves multilayered themes of prejudice, corruption and redemption with an authentic voice and swift, seamless dialogue. A powerful saga of love and survival. —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Review

The Whipping Club was selected for the O - Oprah Magazine July Summer Reading Club.

“Set in 1960′s Ireland, Henry’s riveting debut novel explores the far-reaching effects of a single decision.”
--Publisher's Weekly

“Deborah Henry’s eloquent, magnificently designed novel . . . A story that will draw out every straw of emotion in your soul. This is the best novel I have read in three years.”
--Herald de Paris

“The Whipping Club is an intimate, assured first novel, the story of Marian McKeever and her child hidden by cruelty and custom. It rings with the authenticity of shame and courage. You can put it down but you will not forget it.”
—Jacquelyn Mitchard, best-selling author of The Deep End of the Ocean

“Deborah Henry is a natural storyteller and she is far more. Her novel The Whipping Club is a compelling read, but it also seriously explores the terrible ways the world –as a society, as individuals — often fails its children. And most importantly, her book offers a searingly lovely vision of how wrongs can be made right. Deborah Henry is a splendid young novelist who deserves a wide audience.”
—Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler

“The Whipping Club at once evokes a hauntingly beautiful literary landscape, engaging me immediately. Henry writes with great passion, deep vulnerability and sharpest prose about perils and plights, joy and triumph. Commanding a winsome literary voice, Henry would go far to tell many a tale. And she should.”
—Da Chen, best-selling author of Colors of the Mountain and Sounds of the River

"Exquisitely written, unflinching and spare, The Whipping Club is the haunting portrait of a family that challenges a system whose chilling atrocities toward children are at once beyond comprehension and altogether real. Deborah Henry is a gifted storyteller. The steely realism of her prose, her fiercely drawn characters and startling plot twists make The Whipping Club one of those rare novels that linger in the mind long after the last page is turned."
—Dawn Tripp, best-selling author of Game of Secrets

“Harrowing, haunting, and brilliantly written, Henry’s stunner of a novel is about secrets, so-called sins, and the way even the deepest scars can begin to heal. So breathtakingly good it seems burned into your heart.”
—Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You

“A story of survival, redemption, and the courage that is born of love. One of my favorite reads of the decade!”
—Susan Henderson, author of Up From The Blue

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: T.S. Poetry Press (February 2, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0984553177
• ISBN-13: 978-0984553174
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #560,679 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

AUTHOR'S NOTE:
WHY I WROTE THE WHIPPING CLUB
Why I wrote THE WHIPPING CLUB, to a great extent, remains mysterious to me, similar to why we fall in love with certain people and all the other great mysteries of life.

What I do know is that I am captivated that one misstep can change the course of one's life. What I do know is that I am fascinated with the notion of freedom and am outraged by social, political and religious intolerance, outraged by cruelty to the innocent, outraged by man's inhumanity to man.

During the years spent reading and researching, one day the questions came: What is the one thing you cannot live with? What is the one thing that you cannot live without? What makes you cry?
"To be unable to protect my children" was the answer.

Lots of mystery and synchronicity and letting go and living with the discomfort of writing without a clue where any of this writing would lead, fumbling along after my characters who were raised and lived in foreign countries, mostly Ireland though some were refugees from Lithuania and one character hailed from Poland.

Why bother with all this writing emerged toward the end of the journey.

www.deborahhenryauthor.com

I wrote THE WHIPPING CLUB because what I found hidden I needed to uncover.

-

Deborah Henry

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Horrid abuses, but a dispassionate recounting April 3, 2012

By Julie A. Smith

Format:Paperback

This is a tale of the injustices wrought by the Irish Industrial Schools and orphanages in the 1950's and 1960's.

Marian, a teacher at a Jewish school, is Irish Catholic and her boyfriend Ben is Jewish. Shortly before meeting Ben's parents, Mariam finds out that she is pregnant. After a totally disastrous meeting, Marian decides to go to a Mother Baby Home to have her child, who, she is told, is subsequently given up and adopted by an American family.

Years later, after Ben and Marian have married and become parents to a daughter named Johanna, a nurse from the home visits Marian to tell her that the son she had given up, Adrian, is NOT in America, but is at an orphanage where he is being mistreated.

This novel follows Mariam as she tries to regain custody of Adrian. It speaks of horrific abuse at the hands of the system, a mother's heartache in having failed her son, and the bias and prejudice that contributes to what is already an unbearable situation.

My feelings: The novel feels a bit rushed and jumpy at the start, and reads more intellectually than emotionally - the writing is rather detached, and, as a reader, I was not able to connect with any of the characters. I felt as though I were a dispassionate observer almost through the very end of the novel. If this were a non-fiction title, that would be acceptable; however, as fiction, most readers expect some feeling to come from the pages, especially around the issues that this novel centers around.

Marian imagines prejudice where none exists, and seems very close-minded and selfish. Her husband Ben rightly believes that there is something a bit "off" about Adrian (and that is understandable, given how he has been raised up to this point). Adrian is a bit more of a puzzle; I felt more for him, imagining how much worse his life must have felt once he got a true taste of family.

I feel that this novel is a good start towards shining a light on a system which few were aware of, but it could and should have been so much more.

QUOTES (from an eGalley; may be different in final copy):

The girl closed the door behind them and invited Marian to sit down while she herself remained standing, hovering by the door. It was then that Marian realized that the nurse wasn't there for comfort, but to keep her from running.

Sister Agnes told them that it costs to raise the spawn of whores and that orphans had nothing to add to what the state provided for their upkeep.

Writing: 4 out of 5 stars
Plot: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Characters: 2 out of 5 stars
Reading Immersion: 2 out 5 stars

BOOK RATING: 2.9 out of 5 stars

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful, amazing story! February 15, 2012

By jottingswithjasmine

Format:Paperback

The Whipping Club by Deborah Henry is a terrific book with strong characters and a gut-wrenching plot.

What starts out as a love story between a Catholic woman, Marian McKeever and a Jewish man, Ben Ellis in Ireland in the 60's, familiar in its plot, or so I thought, turns into a totally different animal as the book progresses. It is not at all what it seems on the surface it is so much more.

Marian and Ben have somewhat of a happy ending as regards to the fact that they do get married and have a daughter, but It is really the story of Marian and Ben's biological child, Adrian, who grows up in an orphanage run by the catholic church, where the plot gets interesting. You see Marian was pregnant with Ben's son Adrian before they were wedded and her uncle, Father Brennan, convinces Marian that it is best that she give the child up for adoption and not tell Ben, believing that Marian and Ben will never be married. Marian believes that her son has been adopted by an American family and has had a good life.

What turns this tale on its head is when Marian finds out that her son Adrian has been in Dublin all his life, being mistreated and suffering in a local orphanage. My heart broke while reading this book and actually brought tears to my eyes, which rarely happens to me while reading. I don't want to give away anymore of the plot, but suffice it to say that it is an amazing story with depth and complexity and I highly encourage people to read it.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Whipping Club February 24, 2012

By Mary E. Young

Format:Paperback

This book takes place in Ireland in the 1960's. After discovering that she is pregnant by her Jewish boyfriend, Catholic Marian goes to a mother's home to give birth. She gives up her son who she thought was being placed with a family in America. Ten years later she is married and has a daughter. A nurse from the mother's home drops by her house and tells her that her son wasn't in America, but was placed in a Catholic orphanage. Marian attempts to regain custody of her son, but soon discovers that it isn't as easy as she hoped.

I thought the premise of the book was interesting. However, the writing style was only so-so and the characters seemed a bit flat. Additionally, the book continually shifted from one point-of-view to another. I found this a bit annoying and even confusing at times. As such, I didn't enjoy the book as much as I hoped I would.