Necessary Lies: A Novel

It's been a long time since I read a book where I was as connected to the characters as I was to those in this book.Jane is a young wife settling down in North Carolina with her doctor husband Robert. Robert makes more than enough money to support the couple, however Jane wants to work before settling down to have children. She becomes a caseworker in a rural impoverished area and quickly gets thrust into the world of trying to help the poorest people in the area.Ivy Hart is 15 years old and is often the caretaker of her home; she lives with her older sister, Mary Ella, who is deemed feebleminded, her aging grandmother, and her two year old nephew. Her father has passed away and her mother has been put into a mental institution. The family lives in a tiny house on a tobacco plantation where they work for the Gardiner family who allow them to stay in exchange for working on the plantation. Ivy has a deep bond with her family and also has dreams to better her future.When Jane and Ivy meet, they become friends. Ivy has been determined to be unintelligent and untrustworthy, but Jane can see through that and realizes that Ivy is a determined and hardworking young woman who has been born into an unfortunate situation. Jane works hard to advocate for Ivy and her family and to keep them together. But when multiple tragedies strike, Jane must take actions that she never would have thought of in order to protect Ivy. The two learn that they are more alike than different and have many things in common, despite their extreme differences in lifestyle and upbringing.I loved all of the characters and could picture them so clearly. They all were so dynamic and relatable, despite the fact that I have never been in a situation like them and wasn't yet born when this story took place. The writing was incredibly well done and I felt as if I were there for so much of the story. This was a read for a book club and I suspect it will lead to a great discussion. There are so many dynamics involved that prove that life is never simply black and white.I will admit that I had no idea that forced sterilization went on in the way that it did for so long in order to prevent poor people from having children. That devastated me and I truly learned something from this book. I felt for all of the characters involved in this difficult situation and I could even see how the other social workers involved truly believed they were helping these women. This story taught me something new and also captivated my interest. I was truly sad to see it end. I would highly recommend this book to anyone and I think it is an important read.

This book was interesting from both a factual perspective and as a story. I enjoyed how it wove historical society's beliefs and practices with a character study of a fictional family's experience with the main character, Jane. It seems that a " perfect" system of the Grace County Social Welfare department is balanced and unruffled until Jane gets her new job as a case worker. Jane is the " loose cannon" that triggers a series of events that unleash all the pent up problems within the system and magnify themselves on the Hart family.The book itself is written in an easy to read manner. Not especially intellectually challenging.However, in terms of the actual story....You will likely get caught up in how Jane's emotions rock the way the sterilization program in North Carolina system works: sterilize individuals with less desirable financial and intellectual conditions with the guise to help those people. Ultimately , it helps the upper crust society because they don't have to deal with socio economic problems that go along with poor people having more children. Jane believes that this is wrong, especially when she gets to know some of her new cases on her job. She creates a series of events that destroy her marriage, rip a struggling family apart, and lead others to a brighter future.I found it to be an interesting book because I saw the wrestling match Jane had with society's constraints and how she was overwhelmed with the huge impact her actions had on a family. I did not feel especially connected with Jane, just that she served as a character built with the innocence to believe she could change the system. I enjoyed the way the author described the conditions rural families lived under. That seemed pretty accurate.Overall, nicely tied up story. I enjoyed it and it taught me a bit about our country's history and shocked me that certain programs were practiced so recently.Side note:I am certainly glad that women do not have to get our husband's signed permission to get birth control these days!

If I could give this book 10 stars, I would. Why? Because the author has created strong, believable characters through whom we see the terrible impact North Carolina's sterilization program had on the lives on innocent people. [Over 7000 people were sterilized between 1929 and 1975.] There are two primary narrators of the story: Ivy, a lively 15 years old girl, living on a tobacco plantation as a member of a poor tenant farming family. And Jane, a 22 year old social worker who has just been assigned to work with this family. Jane is so new to the 'System', that she hasn't accepted what is considered normal by the older social workers. She finds herself appalled by what the System has done to Ivy's older sister... and is threatening to do to Ivy... sterilization. This is a powerful story that needs to be to be told. The second set of my gold stars would go to the author, Diane Chamberlain, who has crafted this novel with great skill. She lays the foundation for what is to come in subtle ways from the very beginning. As a reader, you are discovering disturbing truths throughout the novel. In that way, it's a real page-turner. Another brilliant aspect of this novel is that the author creates characters who are flawed, as are we all, and yet they have good qualities. Most people aren't all bad or all good, and yet it requires a strong moral compass to discern the best course of action in each situation. This is a story of human failings by people who have good intentions. It is also the story about an incredible act of courage by a young social worker, who cares about her clients.

It seems wrong to say that I ‘enjoyed’ a book that deals with such abhorrent subject matter. It was news to me that forced sterilization ever took place in the USA. I only ever associated such a program with Nazi Germany!The story is told in alternating chapters through Jane a newlywed who, in opposition to her husband’s wishes, takes on her first job as a social worker, and Ivy a 15-year old living in poverty on a tobacco farm with her sister and grandmother.Ivy’s family is one of the first families Jane meets in the course of her duties as a new social worker. Even though Jane has been instructed that personal feelings cannot influence her work she finds herself drawn to this family.When Jane finds out about the Eugenics Program she is not sure it’s the right thing to do and proceeds to take actions that are contrary to every rule of social services.My thoughts are that the ‘necessary lies’ are those lies told to the uneducated, underprivileged families while the government is carrying out their heinous acts upon persons who have no idea what is being done to them.The writing is such that it makes this dismal story quite readable. I fell head over heels for Ivy; didn’t care much for Jane as much as she tried to do the right thing and disliked her stuck-up husband from the first.It was shocking to me to find that the sterilization practice continued until 1974!

A good interpretation of the era, really enjoyed reading this book.

Un bel page turner, l'autrice ha steso una buona trama e creato personaggi credibili e accattivanti. Si è calata in un contesto difficile e delicato costruendo una storia coinvolgente. Chamberlain gestisce a meraviglia la tensione. Non è Tolstoj, ma nel suo genere questo titolo per me vale 5 stelle.

Der Roman spielt in den USA (genauer im ländlichen North Carolina) in den 1960er Jahren. Zu dieser Zeit waren in diesem Teil der USA behördlich angeordnete Zwangssterilisierungen an der Tagesordnung. Diese verfolgten das Ziel, dass sich Mitglieder der Gesellschaft, bei denen man dies für nicht erstrebenswert hielt, auch nicht fortpflanzten.Necessary Lies erzählt die Geschichte zweier Schwestern, Mary Ella und Ivy, die mit ihrer kranken Großmutter auf einem Hof leben und ins Visier der Behörden geraten sind. Der Roman begleitet den tragischen Leidensweg von Mary Ella, die nach der Geburt ihres ersten Kindes bereits sterilisiert wurde, sowie die Versuche von Ivy, der Zwangssterilisierung zu entkommen. Dabei nimmt die seit kurzem für sie zuständige Sozialarbeiterin Jane eine immer wichtigere Rolle ein, da diese sich zunehmend von der für sie unmenschlichen Praxis distanziert.Die Handlung selbst ist erfunden, aber sie könnte sich so ähnlich, oder noch viel extremer zugetragen haben, wie die Autorin auch im Nachwort anführt.Obwohl, oder gerade weil, das Thema so unglaublich erschreckend und erdrückend ist, hat mich der Roman von Beginn an gefesselt. Ich wollte und konnte ihn gar nicht mehr weglegen und habe ihn in Rekordzeit verschlungen.Ich kann ihn nur allen empfehlen, die eine außergewöhnliche, zur Herzen gehende Geschichte lesen möchten, die bei aller Tragik doch positiv bleibt, und sich damit auseinandersetzen wollen, welche unglaublichen Dinge unsere westliche Gesellschaft noch vor 50 Jahren toleriert und forciert hat.Der Autorin gelingt es nicht nur eine packende Handlung zu entwickeln, sondern diese auch so zu beschreiben, dass man direkt in die Geschichte gezogen wird und mit dem Schicksal der Figuren mitfiebert. Besonders gelungen fand ich, dass die Geschichte abwechselnd aus der Perspektive Ivys und Janes beschreiben wird, so dass man die Sichtweise beider Hauptpersonen versteht.Das Buch ist ein seltener Glücksfall und absolut lesenswert.

the book was great ! I could not put it down and I could not read another book for few days after, it was very touching.