Customer Reviews

White Lies: A Tale of Babies, Vaccines, and Deception

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One of the major pleasures in reading 'first works' by unknown writers is the discovery of great writing in the nascent stage. With WHITE LIES Sarah Collins Honenberger steps onto the stage with a securely written, well researched 'mystery', a novel based on fact that is played by actors so well defined that by the end of the book we feel as though we know each of them - the 'heroes' and the 'villains' - so well that from every angle of each the character motivation is fully detailed. No mean feat this, especially when dealing with a subject matter that is by nature controversial. That Honenberger succeeds in making this fast paced intrigue a truly memorable novel places her in the upper echelon of new writers.

WHITE LIES explores the lives of two disparate women: Jean is a divorce lawyer, happily married with three children, and Lacy who is the product of the poor Carolinas, a women with a history of childhood abuse, bad marriages, but most importantly a mother who has a twenty year old child Danny who has been a vegetable since age 3 months, the apparent result of a reaction to a DPT vaccination. Jean becomes Lacy's lawyer and confidant and friend and the story revolves around the preparation of the case against the drug company who produced the DPT vaccine - a too many years' hidden mystery of deceit that has devastated Lacy and her now fairly normal family life. The manner in which the case is investigated is as well researched and as well written as, say, 'Erin Brockovich', but Honenberger does not stop there. There are fascinating sidebars involving the families of both women (one of Jean's sons, Stephen, may be having a drug problem - a finely tuned story in its own development) that make this also a fascinating story of the trials of parenting. This is a thorough-composed novel that is startlingly well written, a book that can be recommended to every reader without reservation. We will be hearing more from Sarah Collins Honenberger! Grady Harp, November 07

There were several reasons that I knew I wasn't going to be persuaded to buy "White Lies." It was in hardback and I always wait for the paperback, unless it's Harry Potter. It's about a something serious - childhood vaccinations - and Michael Crichton's "State of Fear" has put me off fiction that pretends to educate. It's about the lives of two separate families, and I hate books with artificial, or artsy connections. It's emotional - I don't want my emotions manipulated. It's written in first person, which I don't usually relate to. And it involves a lawyer - oh no, not another Jodi Picault courtroom scene; I've long since sworn off those overly dramatic surprise conclusions.
But I read the first chapter of "White Lies" on Sarah Honengberger's web site and went racing to the nearest bookstore. Why?

For a start, Sarah writes very well. In particular, she writes very well in the first person. Just a few paragraphs were enough to create a character I liked and related to. The single scene was so perfectly drawn - a mother remembering the day her child fell ill, providing details that any mother would relate to, retelling emotions that moved me to concern without tears. It wasn't that I became desperate to know what happened next. Rather, I finished the chapter eager to get to know the mother better. So I had to buy the book.

As for my concerns, I did learn learn something, despite myself,from reading the book - I learned about courts and advocates and medical records and the way laws might be phrased. But Sara wasn't educating me; she was giving me background that brought the story to life. I never felt like she was imposing her opinions or her interpretations on me, or on her characters.

I did become very involved in two separate family's lives. But I never felt I was reading separate stories. There was one story here, with real characters, who had real families and real lives that impinged on the telling.

I found myself emotionally attached to the story - could hardly put it down. But no one was manipulating my emotions; I was excited, angry, sad, concerned, disturbed, because that's what the characters deserved, because the author had made me care.

And the first person writing wasn't a problem. Actually, there are two first person narrators in White Lies. And, amazingly - very expertly - Sarah Honenberger manages to keep their voices so well delineated I never once was unsure of who was speaking. Okay, the chapter headings helped. But when I'm really involved in a book, I don't read headings, and I didn't need to. Not only do the characters have very different narrative voices, but they don't even hear each other the same way as they speak, and it doesn't matter. The mother as narrator is older and wiser than the mother quoted by her lawyer, and yet is still clearly the same person. Both voices are eminently readable - no artificial vocal quirks to distract me. And the narrators grow and change through the course of the book. They form opinions, express opinions, and change their opinions; all the time as real people; people I would want to know.

Sarah's first chapter drew me in. And the book fulfilled its promise. If you're looking for a really good read, with two fascinating, flawed, wise and wonderful lead characters, and an interesting look at the legal and medical systems and their interaction, you should go to the web site for yourself and see if you're not intrigued just as I was
Or you could take my word for it and go buy the book.

"White Lies," by Sarah Collins Honenberger, is the heartbreaking story of a three-month old named Danny Kellam who, in 1969, suffers permanent brain damage. What caused this beautiful and apparently thriving baby to suddenly have seizures and difficulty breathing? One possibility is that he experienced a negative reaction to a routine DPT vaccination. Over twenty years pass and Danny, who is profoundly disabled, lives in a state residential facility. His mother, Lacy Stonington, has remarried, but she is still disconsolate about Danny's condition. After seeing a television program dealing with vaccine-damaged children, Lacy believes that her son had an adverse reaction to his DPT shot. She is horrified that "even though the kids were getting sick, the drug companies were getting rich, so they didn't tell anyone. They just kept using the same medicine."

Lacy turns to her attorney, Jean Driscoll, who lives in the small Virginia farming community of Parry's Crossing, for help. Jean is a solo practitioner who handled Lacy's divorce from Danny's father, but she has no experience in personal injury cases. Jean is married to a teacher, Peter, and they have two sons and a daughter. Her busy schedule leaves her little time to spend with her family, and when she decides to assist Lacy, she risks alienating her husband and exacerbating the problems that they are having with their rebellious teenager, Stephen. At Jean's insistence, Lacy hires as lead counsel Hamilton Fine, a high-powered tort litigator. Fine is an expert in his field, but he can also be "rude, opinionated, [and] downright mean." Dealing with Fine proves to be a challenge for both Jean and Lacy, but his knowledge and experience are essential if Lacy is to have any chance of winning her case.

Honenberger has written a complex, insightful, and multilayered novel. She not only explores the possibility that a vaccine meant to ensure one's health may cause harm, but she also takes a close look at the ups and downs of marital relationships, the conflicts that make parenting teenagers so difficult, and the role that luck and/or fate plays in our lives. The author gives Lacy and Jean their own chapters, enabling each woman to offer her unique perspective on the events as they unfold. Although Lacy had a dysfunctional childhood and little formal education, she is gritty, spunky, generally cheerful, and has a great deal of common sense. As intelligent and emotionally together as Jean considers herself to be, she learns a great deal from Lacy, and in the course of the narrative, grows in ways that she could never have anticipated.

"White Lies" has compelling courtroom scenes that feature the aggressive and overbearing Fine going toe to toe with his equally tough opposing counsel. There are also wrenching encounters during which Jean wonders whether or not she has done enough to keep her family happy and safe. The title refers not only to the corporate lies that executives and physicians tell us, but also to the fibs that we tell ourselves concerning our own shortcomings. The most fortunate among us eventually find the strength to look in the mirror and face reality while there is still time to make things right. Unfortunately, for some people there can be no happy ending. Sometimes, the best that we can do is care for one another and reach out with compassion to those who are suffering.

This is also, a GATHER writer book sounds good. Hope she get's the attention she deserves.

A wonderfully written book exploring the universal themes of parenting, mother-guilt, love. The characters are real people who took hold of my thoughts even after I put the book down.

Well written, fast and easy to read. I could not put it down. Honenberger shows true insight into emotions of a mother who loves her child very much.

This is an enjoyable and important book. The author has beautifully combined an expose of a tragic national issue with the impact it has on the lives of the protagonist lawyer, her family, and the woman and child she represents. The characters are alive, and the settings of towns and courtrooms are believable because they are drawn with such exacting care. But it is the story itself that is riveting. The struggle to get justice for a child hopelessly damaged by medical incompetance and bad policy is told competently and quietly, and will not fail to engage and enrage the reader. This easy-to-read and hard-to-forget book belongs on every parent's bookshelf.

Beautifully written, White Lies is a story any mother who had a child in the late 60's could have lived. Reading it brought tears to my grateful eyes that my 36-year-old son is a healthy, happy, vibrant member of today's world. We survived, without permanent damage, the DPT vaccinations and fevers that poor Lacy and Danny endured. Then decades later Lacy found Jean, a lawyer who struggling with her own family problems had the compassion and dedication to pursue against the odds of time and government bureaucracy. A wonderful story about two women from two completely different backgrounds that came together through tragedy. This story renewed my faith in motherhood, lawyers, and justice.

Moving and funny at the same time, White Lies is a beautifully written, insightful story of two mothers. Without any guilt or finger pointing, it reminded me what an amazing gift it is to have healthy demanding children. Read it and share it with other parents.

This book has an absorbing plot; many interesting characters and character development.
Legal and medical points of view were well presented. AND, it has a happy ending which made me feel good.