Book For The Week 9/28/13: The Story Of The Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon

The Story Of The Beautiful Girl

by

Rachel Simon

A New York Times Bestseller two weeks after it's release and one of Oprah's top ten titles to pick up in June 2011,  The Story Of The Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon is my library book group's selection for October.    It is a fiction story about a young mentally challenged woman who is raped by her care giver in a state institution in Pennsylvania in 1968.  She becomes pregnant and just before her child is born a deaf and mute man, who she has befriended and is also a resident at the institution, helps her to escape.  They run and while they are away the baby is born.  Through a chain of events they are able to secure the baby safely with an older, childless,widow before young woman is re-taken by authorities and the man runs away with out her.  The story then follows the three story lines of these individuals.    In the epilogue the author states that part of the book was inspired by Geraldo Rivera's documentary on a state institution for the mentally challenged.  Here is the trailer for that 1968 documentary:




I found this book very difficult to read.  While it is a love story with a happy ending there is just so much pain between the pages to endure with the characters.   Never the less,  it should be required reading for all.  As a society we need to know where we were not so long ago with our treatment of our mentally disabled.  I can remember, as a teen,  the push to mainstream the handicapped into our school systems and what opposition there was to it.  I have known people who have worked in the system we have now and talk of the way things are still not right for our mentally challenged population.   It is a good thing to see where the journey came from not so long ago and to know that  while we still have progress to make, we have come a long way.  I hope the resources grow to  ensure that all our citizens are functioning at their full potential.  Please click on the title and the author's name above to follow links to more information.  And watch the video below in which the author introduces her novel.