The Whipping Club

by Deborah Henry

Inspired by her heritage and research of the Irish Industrial School system, Henry’s auspicious debut chronicles a couple’s attempt to save their son from horrific institutions.

Marian McKeever and Ben Ellis are not typical young lovers in 1957 Dublin, Ireland; she’s Catholic and teaches at Zion School, and he’s Jewish and a budding journalist. The two plan to wed, but their families object to an interfaith marriage. And when Marian becomes pregnant, she doesn’t tell Ben. Coerced by Father Brennan (a Catholic priest who is also her uncle), Marian goes to Castleboro Mother Baby Home, an institution ruled by Sister Paulinas and Sister Agnes where “sins are purged” via abuse; i.e., pregnant girls are forced to mow the lawn by pulling grass on their hands and knees. Marian is told that her son, Adrian, will be adopted by an American family. The riveting storyline provides many surprises as it fast-forwards to 1967 where Marian and Ben are married and have a 10-year-old daughter. Marian’s painful secret emerges when she learns that her son was dumped in an abusive orphanage not far from her middle-class home and Sister Agnes is his legal guardian. Thus begins a labyrinthine journey through red tape as the couple fight to regain their firstborn child. Ultimately, 12-year-old Adrian is placed in the Surtane Industrial School for Boys, which is rife with brutality and sexual abuse at the hands of “Christian Brother Ryder.” Though unchecked church power abounds, this is not a religious stereotype or an indictment of faith. Hateful characters like Brother Ryder are balanced with compassionate ones, such as a timid nurse from the Mother Baby Home. Father Brennan deepens into a three-dimensional character who struggles to do what is right. Henry weaves multilayered themes of prejudice, corruption and redemption with an authentic voice and swift, seamless dialogue. Her prose is engaging, and light poetic touches add immediacy. For example, when Marian returned to Mother Baby Home after 11 years, she “opened the car door and stepped onto the gravel, wanting to quiet its crunch, like skeletons underneath her shoes.” Echoing the painful lessons of the Jewish Holocaust, Henry’s tale reveals what happens when good people remain silent.

A powerful saga of love and survival.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Ireland, Historical, Adult, Ebooks

345 pages

First published February 2, 2012

About the author

Deborah Henry attended American College in Paris and graduated cum laude from Boston University with a minor in French language and literature. She received her MFA in creative writing at Fairfield University and has the passionate support of many first-class novelists including Jacquelyn Mitchard, Pulitzer prize winner Robert Olen Butler, Da Chen, Michael White, Martine Bellen, Caroline Leavitt, Dawn Tripp Susan Henderson and Irishman Thomas Cooke, Emmy-award winning writer and director. Her first review of THE WHIPPING CLUB, a Kirkus Review earned a Kirkus Star. Deborah is an active member of The Academy of American Poets, a board member of CavanKerry Press and a patron of the Irish Arts Center in New York.

http://www.facebook.com/DeborahHenryA...

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

RUN and get this book! I started this book yesterday and finished it today. Read it every free moment I could find...

I cried, I cheered, I got angry, I protested, I held my breath, I felt exhausted, hopeless, hopeful. and much, much more. Who ever said that life was fair anywhere? I know it isn't, but this work haunted and haunts me on so many levels for myself and for so many others...

Man's inhumanity to man. Man's humanity to man. Woman's inhumanity to woman. Woman's humanity to woman. Religion. Faith. Religion. Faith. Family. Love. Secrets. Lies. Truth. How to choose and how to make things fit together somehow - The never ending human struggle?

Will try to do this work justice once I digest so many thoughts and feelings coursing through me.

BRAVA - Deborah Henry!

Again, hate this five star system. Just doesn't cut it! So I give this book five stars plus all the stars I wish I could pick out of an ink dark sky!

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marian and Ben, young lovers in 1950s Ireland, are on the road to learning some of Life's more difficult lessons. Marian (Catholic) is pregnant, and about to tell Ben (Jewish)...but after a disastrous first meeting with his parents, she hies off to a Catholic "Mother & Baby" home to complete her pregnancy and "give up" the baby for adoption.

Fast forward ten years.....Marian and Ben are married with a daughter, Johanna, and life is good. Things start to unravel when the "other" child makes an appearance, though not directly at first. Seems Adrian was not adopted by a wealthy American couple, but has been languishing in a Catholic Orphanage, within spitting distance (okay, I exaggerate, here) of Marian's happy home. Thus begins the journey through Irish Adoption Law...the quest to "get Adrian back".

After a shaky period within the bosom of his family, Adrian is returned to the Orphanage while the wheels of Church and State grind slow, his fate in the balance, since he is legally the ward of one Sister Agnes....head "angel" of the Orphanage.. He befriends another orphan, a girl...and all hell breaks loose because they are kids and curious. The girl is shipped off to a madhouse and Adrian is consigned to an Industrial School for Boys, where the loving attention of the priests leaves many marks.

If this story seems to be following a pattern...it is. It did. It is a fierce indictment of the Catholic Orphanage/Industrial School system....of the "homes" for unwed mothers....of the abuse of defencless children by priests and nuns....but it is told more from the side of one family caught up in the system's net. The toll taken on a marriage through guilt, frustration, and anger..Marian spends a lot of time blaming herself for Adrian's situation...and suspecting her husband of countless infidelities....and envying his ties to Judaism and "faith"....Ben goes through life trying to succeed at his job as a Journalist, being thwarted at every turn for his "radical" ideas....trying to understand his wife's mood swings...Johanna goes through life as a kid in a shaky home situation...The Church people go through life with "God's blessings"

I liked this book for its restraint..and respect the author for not turning it into a screed...for developing believable characters caught in a heartbreaking situation, without reverting to a "4 hankie" fest...I came away from this book still angry as hell at the blindness of the Catholic Church and the cruelty meted out in the name of God....but I am glad I saw the human side of this one story..

Recommended to anyone who wants to be pleasantly surprised at the handling of one Hot Button Issue

4 Stars

***this was a Net Galley***

[Patty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Where to begin? I was drawn to this tale of a young Catholic girl in Ireland in love with a Jewish boy. Just as she is to meet his family she finds she is pregnant. It's the '50ies and interfaith marriage is challenging enough but sex before said marriage. Uh-uh. Of course our heroine, Marian finds herself pregnant and with the advice and help of her Uncle, a priest she hies off to a home for unwed mothers run by nuns. It turns out to be a prison like estate where the fallen girls are mistreated and browbeaten for their wantonness.

Ultimately Marian marries her Ben and they settle into life and have a daughter, Johanna. All seems right with the world until Nurse, a woman from Marian's past comes to the house to tell her that her son, Adrian is not with a family in America as she thought but rather in a Dublin orphanage and not doing so well. Marian confesses to Ben and seeks custody of their son only to find that the Catholic church and the laws of Ireland are very much against their regaining their own child.

A powerful tale eh? So much possibility. The horrors of the Catholic church. The evils it teaches, the power it held. The guilt of a mother. This could have been an excellent book. But for me it wasn't. The characters were all unlikable; Marian never changed. She was a whiny, unthinking woman who neglected her current family in the trials to regain her son. Ben a man of all the typical Jewish stereotypes who wanted to make peace wherever he could until the end. Johanna, a truly unpleasant child. Father Brennan, Marian's protector but only concerned with appearances. Then there were the nuns and priests at the orphan schools and orphanages - I'm sure the evils portrayed occurred but these were caricatures instead of characters.

The book was dark upon dark upon darker. There was minimal nuance and little hope. And the title? Good god! Was it to cause buzz? It comes from one small piece of the book and has minimal bearing on the story.

[Chris Bullock · Rating 1 out of 5]

Received as a giveaway.
I thought that the storyline showed potential. Written from the perspective initially of a young girl in Ireland in 1957 and then jumping forward to 1967 to relate hers and her families life story.
Although much research had taken place in order to write the story; evidenced by almost forced references to 'products' of the times such as Woodbine cigarettes, Yardley, Guiness, a Ford Cortina car, Heinz Baked Beans and Cheerios; it came across as unconvincing.
The American spellings could be forgiven, as presumably it was written for that audience rather than British, but the American phrases and terminology just made the characters not credible to me - In 1957 hardly anyone would have had a phone, therefore for the characters to be frequently giving each other a 'ring' was highly unlikely.
Some terms are understandable such as the 'principal' of a school, parking lot, and trash bin, but these do not exist in Britain; and other terms are almost meaningless - brownstones, dirt lot, kickball, to pick out just a few.
I'm sure heart and soul went into writing the story, but the anachronisms, spelling and phraseology just detracted too much from the story for me to appreciate it.

[SwensonBooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read the source here: http://bit.ly/HStNQA

Being part of the book industry means that I am aware of many good books and often struggle to manage my TBR list, doubling and tripling in size each season. Word of mouth, of course, is the best indicator of good literature. Shelf discovery, those long meanderings through aisles of towering bookcases in a nearby local bookstore, is noteworthy too. And yet as I work my way into the publishing industry, reading industry newsletters and blogs and even following popular Twitter accounts, more and more books that I read are not good. I fear this is a strange counter-culture knee jerk – the selfish desire to read an absolutely wonderful book that no one else has read or heard of. And thus the paradox, the root of my troubles: if no one is reading this book or talking about it, you can bet there’s a reason. Especially when publishers, agents and booksellers are reading and sharing the same 5-10 books a season.

And so it was, armed with this implausible hope, that I downloaded a NetGalley copy of The Whipping Club (T.S. Poetry Press, 2012) by Deborah Henry to my e-reader, a Nook Simple Touch. The advance copy was available to anyone on NetGalley who requested it (this should have been a flag) and the publisher was one I didn’t recognize (another flag). But the synopsis drew me in and the setting was Ireland, so I couldn’t resist.

When Catholic Marian McKeever discovers that she is pregnant before she weds Jewish Ben Ellis, she is coerced to abandon the illegitimate child, fearing greater objections from their families than interfaith. And though she and Ben wed the next year and have a daughter soon after, Marian has never been able to assuage her guilt. So when 11 years later Marian learns her firstborn child is a ward of the Irish state, abused and malnourished in a local orphanage, she is compelled to atone for her sins. Marian and Ben must confront their troubled past and reveal their darkest secrets if they are going to fight through the red tape – passive legal systems and trenchant religious institutions – to bring him back home.

I opened The Whipping Club on my e-reader, expecting a compelling and powerful story, and immediately all my hopes were dashed. The book was a PDF file, not an e-pub. As a result, all text had strange formatting with every few phrases or sentences alternating font styles and sizes. Someone working for Deborah Henry – or perhaps Henry herself – made a significant mistake.

Then I chastised myself: if the story is good, the formatting errors won’t matter. I even went online as a precaution to see what people on GoodReads had to say. But despite encouragement from fellow readers on GoodReads and promises that this novel was “gripping” and “unputdownable,” my reading experience did not improve. I finished the novel and I was disappointed. I felt duped by the book’s praises and endorsements.

Yes, this was a story of “love and survival.” No, it was not “powerful.” Yes, the themes are complex and “multilayered.” No, Henry’s prose is not “engaging” or “poetic” and her dialogue is not “seamless.” Marian was underdeveloped, a character plagued by too much internal dialogue and not enough action. There were too many perspectives, the novel unfolding to include Ben’s, Adrian’s, Nurse’s, Father Ryder’s, and Father Brennan’s perspectives (and that’s not a comprehensive list). Nearly all the characters contributed to the drama and the effect was akin to a deformed and abandoned jigsaw puzzle. Though Henry’s concept was good, the novel needed developmental editing. The greatest compliment I can offer is Henry delivered an honest, balanced, non-reductive portrait of Catholic Ireland in the 1960s (and Jewish Ireland, for that matter) and the challenges faced by many individuals during that historical moment.

This debut novel sounds intriguing – absolutely – but the execution was poor and the story unpolished. A concept is rarely powerful enough to overtake such major flaws in craft. It is sad but true, and most writers’ deceive themselves thinking that they are gifted enough write a bestseller when they are also deaf to editorial input and derisive of experience.

The Whipping Club’s premise is complex, political and emotionally-charged. This was a book I should like and enjoy, especially given the professional book cover design. Ah, but what is that aphorism? Oh yes, don’t judge a book…

[Readnponder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marian, a Catholic teacher in a Jewish school in Dublin, finds herself pregnant by Ben, her Jewish boyfirend, in 1957. She goes to one fo the infamous mother/baby homes in Ireland, presuming that her son will be placed with an adoptive family in America. Keeping her first pregnancy a secret, she later marries Ben, and they have a daughter, Johanna.

Fast forward to 1967 when a nurse from the mother/baby home tells Marian her son was not adopted, rather he was placed in an orphanage, a institution of abuse and malnutrition. Ben and Marian wrestle with the civil and church authorities trying to get their son back. The author does a good job portraying the "incestuous" relationship of church and state at that time. The head nun doesn't want Adrian going to a half-Jewish home, even though it's with both natural parents. The judge defers to the nuns. Ben, a journalist, is prohibited by his editor from writing an expose of the industrial schools, i.e. orphanages. Meanwhile, the relationships within the family are strained: Why isn't Ben more on board with the fight to get Adrian back? Is Johanna jealous of all the attention going to her newfound sibling or is he a bad influence on her? How will Marian's Jewish mother-in-law react?

The plot is gripping and the subject matter worthy of a book. I gave it 3 stars because the novel is uneven. There is good writing mingled wtih confusing scenes. The timeline of 1957 jumping to 1967 doesn't work. If Adrian was born in 1957, Johanna would be born in 1958 at the earlist. She couldn't be 10 in 1967. chapter 4 about the death of Ben's father was likewise confusing. Did he die after the ill-fated dinner with Marian in 1957 or in the present time of the novel, 1967? Finally, I wish the author spent a bit more time developing the neighbor, Mrs. O'Rourke. She played a key role toward the end, which left me wanting to know her better. Nevertheless, the book is illuminating about a disturbing piece of Irish history and worth reading.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do not read this book if you want a happy Disney feel-good story. Do read it if you aren't afraid to look cruelty in the face, knowing that there still exists in some pockets of society, individuals who, despite their vocation preaching love and kindness, are the worst offenders of the very opposite.

This is a story of a Catholic woman and a Jewish man, who marry despite protests from their families, and who are shunned by their neighbors. It's a story of a family who discover, to their horror, that the son whom they had thought to have been adopted at birth and living in America 12 years ago, is instead, still in Ireland and living in an orphanage run by nuns. As they attempt to regain custody of their son, they come up against the disinterested arm of the law and a nun who relishes the power she wields over both the orphans under her care and the couple who want their son back.

The cruelty of keeping the boy away from his family, a family he has come to care for and yearn for, is compounded when, after allowing him to spend a summer with them, he is sent to an extremely strict Catholic boys' home run by monks because of what the nun perceives to be a major transgression.

The punishments inflicted on the boy are often perverse and severe, leading him to take drastic measures to try and save himself and his best friend. It takes a tragedy and a desperate escape before certain individuals finally decide to step up and do the right thing.

It's a difficult book to read because of all child abuse, but I think it's an important one to recognize the levels of corruption and evil that we need all be aware of in order for us to protect the children who are most exposed and vulnerable.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A profound and powerful novel that starts in the 50's when a young Catholic schoolteacher and a Jewish man fall in love, amongst much parental disapproval. An unexpected pregnancy brings a Catholic priest, who is also the schoolteacher's uncle, advising giving the child up for adoption so that she can start her married life knowing the young man wants to marry her for herself and not because he is forced. What follows is a poignant, heart-rendering story as they marry and find out their first son had been placed in an abusive orphanage. Parts of this story are very intense, yet one needs to keep reading, and hoping for a happy ending. ARC from netgalley.

[Robert Carraher · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly haunting and literary debut. Telling the story of a clash of faiths, societies and a struggle against a system that is as mindless as it is heartless. In 1957 Dublin, Ireland, Marian McKeever is a newly minted teacher, and substituting a job at Dublin’s Zion School in the Jewish quarter for world travel. She meets, falls in love with and gets pregnant by Ben Ellis, a rising star journalist, and a Jew. Filled with a sense of shame for having done ‘the dirty deed’, and proving herself a bad girl because ladies waited. She allows herself to be castigated and further shamed by her uncle, a newly minted priest.

He convinces her that not only did she commit the sin, but with a Jew at that, and interfaith marriages never work, even if he’d have her. Further, it would be unfair to confront the young man and demand he do the right thing, for this reason and also for the simple fact that even were he Catholic, he would always resent her. Her uncle convinces her, actually demands, that she take a long ‘vacation’ with him, and so she does where she is housed in a catholic Mother Baby Home to have the child and give him up for adoption.

As her delivery date draws near, she is brow beaten and convinced by one of the crueler sisters to come up with ₤100 pounds, a princely sum, to insure the baby is adopted by an American family and taken to America where they won’t care he was born in sin and is of mixed race. She comes up with the price. This is no simple home for unwed mothers. Sister Paulinus and Sister Agnes never miss a chance to “purge the sins” of those who have entrusted themselves to their care. The quarters are Spartan, nearly penal with all outside contact cut off and any comfort taken away. The women are made to labor, even as they grow large as their dates arrive. They are made to mow the lawn by pulling it by hand, to scrub the floors on hand and knee.

The story segues ten or eleven year into the future and Marian is now married to Ben and they have a young daughter, Johanna. Ben is a successful journalist on a Dublin paper and the couple has settled into a comfortable middle class life. Their spirited daughter is learning about the heritage of both of her parents as she is not accepted by either of their extended families. Then, one day, as mother and daughter arrive home, they see a person in the uniform of a nurse scurrying away from their mail box. At first Marian tries to discount this persons appearance at their home to Johanna, but as she reads the note left by “Nurse”, a simple and slow witted woman from the Mother Baby Home, she learns that her son, Adrian was not adopted to a rich American family and in fact sill resides at a near by orphanage where he is badly treated and under fed. Thus begins the fight to regain possession of her son, and she must fight the Catholic nuns who shun the child's mixed blood, but alternately wish to profit from returning him to his family. Ben is lukewarm to the idea, even though he loves his son, but doesn’t want the boy to interfere with his perfect family, especially his cherished daughter.

As Marian learns more deeply the extent of the abuses the children undergo in the home, she becomes more determined to regain her son. Adrian, happy to have a family, and especially happy to have a little sister, has a hard time adapting to the world around him as brutality is thoroughly taught, but manners and the way to act in public are not.

The story is narrated, and it is probably 80% narration which works very well for this story, and is gut wrenching as it details Marians struggle not only with the nuns and brothers at the orphanage, but with the legal and social system that seems to want to throw her son away. She also must battle with her husband, who is torn between love and a desire to maintain the status quo.But Marian is obsessed to gather her son back into their family. When Adrian graduates to an “industrial school” and is surrounded by deeper and more permanent cruelties, sexual abuse at the hands of the brothers, and the other young boys, and is seemingly deserted by the laws and society the fight becomes desperate.

Henry not only succeeds in shining a light into a not so distant past in a society struggling to modernize itself, but on how one societal misstep can mark ones life forever. It also shows the evils of religious and social intolerance, and how power, left unchecked, can perpetrate unspeakable cruelties on the very foundation of a nation, its young. She also goes into the shadows of the orphanages and the brutal warehouses they can be, that house the unwanted children on the world. Marians seemingly futile struggle to protect and regain possession of her son makes the reader feel the pain of a mother who is helpless to protect her child. She is driven to the edge of madness, but still holds true to a course of not abandoning her son again.

The prose are gripping, and almost poetic in their emotional depth, the research is concise and accurate, and the story haunting. The characters, even when pitted against each other, are likeable and their point of views understandable and easy to empathize with and their foibles only make them more real to the reader. Perhaps, more than any one thing, what the story teaches is the evils that can come to life when good people remain silent in the face of societies norms. A debut novel that holds the promise of a long and meaningful career as a serious writer. Bravo!


Deborah Henry attended American College in Paris and graduated cum laude from Boston University with a minor in French language and literature. She received her MFA at Fairfield University. She is an active member of The Academy of American Poets, a Board member of Cavankerry Press and a patron of the Irish Arts Center in New York.

Curious about the duality of her own Jewish/Irish heritage, Henry was inspired to examine the territory of interfaith marriage and in so doing was led to the subject of the Irish Industrial School system.



The Dirty Lowdown

Copyright © 2012 Robert Carraher All Rights Reserved

[Zinta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Deborah Henry has said about the writing of her debut novel: “I wrote The Whipping Club because what I found hidden, I needed to uncover.”

An understatement, no doubt, as first novels of this scope aren’t written by merely turning over a rock. That had to be at very least a sizeable boulder, and the courage to write it equally so. The Whipping Club is a story about Marian McKeever, a teacher and a Catholic, and the man with whom she falls in love, a journalist and Jewish, in Dublin, Ireland, of 1957. It is about the child she carried at the time of their engagement, but felt she couldn’t keep. It is the story of an unforgiving society that would rather look the other way than to face its troubles, about churches corrupted by power, about the dark secrets of orphanages and homes for unwed mothers, and the abuse so prevalent in these institutions.

With that premise comes a great deal of suffering, and for no one more than the abandoned child. In 1957 Ireland, to marry out of one’s faith was unacceptable enough, but to carry a child as a young, still unwed mother was beyond forgiveness. The young Marian made the heart-wrenching decision (or perhaps, more accurately, was forced into this decision by the norms of that time) to give birth to her child, but then give it up to what she hoped would be a better life than the one she could offer. She entered a home for unwed mothers, keeping her secret even from her fiancé. After all, his family was already up in arms about their inter-faith marriage.

Based on extensive research, including a trip to Ireland, Henry delves deep into the horrors behind closed doors of power and privilege. Henry is herself Irish-American and born of inter-faith parents, Jewish and Catholic. A seed for a novel may be born there, but Henry has created a story from that seed that touches all hearts that can still be touched, and shakes up even those who would rather be unshaken and remain asleep—The Whipping Club whips up emotion that is difficult and painful. Few things can be more painful than the loss of a child, let alone facing up to the abuse of that child.

The home for unwed mothers is a cruel place of forced penance on pregnant girls, no matter the circumstances of their condition. The girls are sent out to “mow” the lawn by pulling up sheaves of grass with their hands. They are taunted and punished and humiliated without and beyond reason, yet their suffering is shadowed by what happens to many of their children. Rather than being adopted by families, many of the children are placed instead in orphanages where sexual abuse is rampant, beatings are an everyday occurrence, and ever thicker and darker lies are told to maintain cover. Children die, and no one flinches.

When Marian and Ben come full circle to confront the reality of the child left behind, by then having a 10-year old daughter, any fantasies Marian may have held as comfort that her child was better off are shattered. Her unwavering search for her son is perhaps not nearly as mesmerizing as her struggles to connect with him once she finds him. A great many doors come bursting open, and a great many shadows are drawn into near-blinding light.

If ever the story becomes almost too heavy to bear, it is lightened again by the characters that do the right thing, overcoming fear and threats and societal pressure. Throwing lifelines to the reader are the resilience and will to survive of the children. Children are a powerful force, and in spite of the sins of the adults, enough of them survive to give a corrupt society hope for a more tolerant and compassionate future. Classic moments of reunited mother and child, even if only momentarily, brighten the storyline enough to keep the suffering from becoming overpowering—yet just weighty enough to stay with the reader long after the book is done.

“Adrian. The child she had never forgotten stood there, in between Father Brennan and Nurse, and to Father Brennan’s left, the short and strapping Sister Agnes, but they could all disappear into thin air. Except for him. The yearning had never diminished. All these years, all she had ever wanted was to see him again in the flesh, and dreamed that he would be returned to her and their home where he could be safe and happy.

“Marian crouched down so that she could gaze into his eyes. She desperately wanted him to feel her love for him. She wanted him to know that she was sorry, wanted to tell him that she hoped they could make up for lost time. All this time. Still, she could have never found him. How many times had she secretly daydreamed about him since he was ripped from her life? How her da would have wanted him, too! She must remain calm in front of the fat Sister. He was a big boy, a beautiful boy. He had the map of a McKeever on his face. She reached toward him and brought him into her arms. She felt her body shaking, the heat of shame scouring her.”

Deborah Henry’s first short story was published by The Copperfield Review, was a historical fiction finalist for Solander Magazine of The Historical Novel Society and was long-listed in the 2009/10 Fish Short Story Prize. The Whipping Club is her first novel and was chosed for Oprah’s Summer 2012 reading list. She lives in Fairfield, Connecticut, with her husband and their three children. She is currently at work on her next book. Visit her at deborahhenryauthor.com. Henry’s work has also been published in The Smoking Poet, where an author interview will be featured in the Fall 2012 issue.

[Anachronist · Rating 3 out of 5]

Synopsis:

Marian McKeever and Ben Ellis are not typical young couple in 1957 Dublin, Ireland; she’s a Catholic teacher and he’s a Jewish journalist at the beginning of his career. They are very much in love with each other and plan to marry but their families object. Then Marian gets pregnant; she intends to tell Ben while eating a diner with his family but the same night Ben’s father has a stroke and dies. Believing that she has to protect her future with Ben who, mourning for his father, is clearly not ready for a shotgun marriage, Marian feels she must deal with that problem on her own.

Her uncle, a Catholic priest called Father Brennan, recommends that Marian goes to the Castleboro Mother Baby Home, a kind of shelter for unwed pregnant women. He doesn’t tell her that it is an institution where “sins are purged” via abuse; i.e., pregnant girls are forced to mow the lawn by pulling grass on their hands and knees. After the birth Marian is told that her newborn son, Adrian, will be adopted by an American family so she leaves the baby with the sisters and pays the adoption fee. It proves to be a grave mistake.

A decade later, Ben and Marian, now wed, raise their ten-year-old daughter, Johanna. After a while the nurse who delivered Adrian pays Marian a visit. She tells her that her son wasn’t adopted at all - he is kept in a notorious Catholic orphanage, not far from Dublin. Marian, feeling horrible pangs of conscience, decides to do everything to bring Adrian home and reunite her family. She starts by confronting her husband - telling him about her first pregnancy ordeal. So begins a labyrinthine journey through red tape as the couple fight to regain their firstborn child. Ultimately, 12-year-old Adrian is placed in the Surtane Industrial School for Boys, which is rife with brutality and sexual abuse, mainly at the hands of “Christian Brother Ryder” and his minions. Will his parents manage to help him?

What I liked:

This novel is set against the political backdrop of postwar Ireland but echoing the painful lessons of the Jewish Holocaust, and I found such a setting rather interesting. Mrs. Henry has a great narrative voice, very pleasant to read; she can keep you interested even when she is telling you about an ordinary family life. The plot of this book was far from simple, though - it is a wrenching drama with suspense elements, spanning a decade or so, interweaving the stories of several characters, some of them pretty dramatic like that of an inmate-friend of Adrian, Peter.

Horrible villains like Brother Ryder are balanced with compassionate characters, such as a timid nurse from the Mother Baby Home. Father Brennan I found actually the most interesting personage here – he definitely deepens into a three-dimensional character, facing the atrocities committed in the name of his religion and struggling to do what is right.

I’ve never been a member of a book club but I suppose this novel would be a perfect position to discuss with others. It deals with highly controversial issues: the role of religion in a society, the nature of sin, guilt, redemption and what happens when good people remain passive and silent.


What I didn’t like:

I must admit the ending seemed a bit rushed to me. I also chuckled a lot reading about those ‘horrible’ Upper Silesian mines where our young hero wanted to hide for a year or two to escape from the Irish Industrial School system. Well, certainly no mine is safe or nice to work in, take it from a miner’s daughter, but there are far worse places… like orphanages.

I am also not fond of the title itself (yes, I have been displeased with plenty of titles lately but what can be done?) as it relates to just one institution mentioned rather late in the book. I found it misleading - it might suggest the book is about quite different subjects.


Finally let me just warn you that there are some scenes in the book that might make you uncomfortable to say the least of it. Sexual abuse and paedophilia are never nice topics. Although the descriptions are not overly detailed or graphic, they remain distressing nevertheless, especially if you are blessed with vivid imagination.

Final verdict:

An interesting but slightly controversial position, definitely not a book you should read just with entertainment in mind. I don’t regret reading it but I don’t know whether I would like to reread.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received 'The Whipping Club' as part of the Goodreads First Reads program. My first impression upon finishing the book; Wow!

The story spans over a decade in the lives of Marian McKeever and Ben Ellis, a Christian woman and a Jewish man who fall in love much to the horror of those around them. The story begins in the 1950's with the couple facing the hurdle of dining with Ben's Jewish and disapproving parents. From here, we learn of Marian's secret pregnancy and following an unexpected turn of events at the Ellis' house, Marian decides to keep the news to herself with the intention of protecting Ben and their future together, and travels to a 'mother and baby' home run by nuns. It is here she is led to believe her son Adrian will be adopted by a nice American family and will benefit from a better life.

Fast forward ten years or so and we meet Marian and Ben Ellis, married with a daughter Jo. After a visit from a nun from her past, Marian learns her son was never adopted and in fact, has been living in Ireland in an orphanage run by nuns. The rest of the book details the physical and emotional struggle faced by the Ellis family as they attempt to claim custody of Adrian.

I took an unusually long time to read this book, although I wouldn't say this is a negative. This book is a complete roller coaster ride of emotions and I almost felt I had to take it slowly to really reflect upon the depths of emotion felt by each character. Deborah Henry manages to incorporate many of the characters thoughts and feelings into the text, and although some may consider this constant change of view to be confusing, I had no problems keeping up and actually found it to be beneficial in understanding more fully the circumstances and events unfolding. This was especially evident when Marian conflicts with Ben in their methods to get their son back; Ben listens to the authorities and tries to keep calm in order to increase the likelihood of getting Adrian back, whilst Marian marches in full steam ahead with a fiery temper, determined to have her say and is horrified by Ben's lack of fight. The contrast of methods and consequently the contrast in opinions enabled me to see the strains on their marriage and therefore, predict the affect of their behaviour on those around them, in particular Jo. Many other reviews have mentioned a lack of feeling towards the key character Marian and at times, I too felt she was selfish and lacking the maternal instinct and drive to fight for her son however, I also found myself contemplating the choices she realistically would have had in Ireland during the 60's without having any kind of authority or power, and her position seemed a little more helpless evoking immense sympathy from me.

The descriptions of abuse suffered in the homes and orphanages in this era are harrowing to say the least. Physical, mental and sexual abuse are difficult topics to write about, especially involving children and I think Henry was extremely brave and very adept at tackling the subject sensitively enough without poring over too many gory details, although the details of the beatings may make some readers cringe. The painful aspect of reading these parts of the book is knowing that there are real survivors of these types of homes who can attest to the types of abuse suffered in some of them, and that is when the words truly hit home.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, although it's most definitely not a light read. The topics covered are full of pain and emotion but Deborah Henry has done a sterling job of digging into the depths of the characters emotions and portrayed their hurt, pain and loss through so many different eyes, making it impossible, from my point of view, for the reader to not share the feelings conveyed.

[Lori L (She Treads Softly) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Whipping Club by Deborah Henry follows Ben and Marian, a mixed couple of Jewish and Catholic backgrounds, their daughter Johanna, and their son, Adrian, who Marian gave up for adoption ten years earlier. Set in Ireland, the first chapter opens in 1957, but the novel is primarily set ten years later, 1967 and on. Finding herself pregnant before they married, Marian gives up Adrian, the couples first child, after staying in a Catholic home for unwed mothers. She and Ben marry later, and have their daughter, Johanna, but Marian is rife with guilt over giving up their son. Then she learns that Adrian was never adopted but was, instead, given over to an orphanage.

Marian tells Ben her secret, discovering that he already knew it, and the couple set out to find and then add their son back into their family. This struggle then illuminates the injustice and abuse orphans and unwanted children suffered at the hands of the Catholic run system in Ireland. At the same time their daughter Johanna is also facing religious intolerance based on her parentage.

The Whipping Club is a melancholy, bleak page turner. We experience Marian's (unnamed) depression, the brutality in the orphanages, the uncertainty that there is a satisfactory conclusion to the myriad of hopeless situations present. Henry is an adept writer and she does a good job with character development, even when several major characters were not very appealing. The story did keep my interest right up to the end. The descriptions of the brutal treatment of the children at the orphanages is horrific.

I did have a few qualms about the novel. First, while The Whipping Club is well written, the actual dialogue didn't fully convey the emotional upheavals the characters are experiencing. My biggest hesitation about the novel was that, as I was reading, the first part of the novel seemingly was heading one way and then diverged to another direction. While this could be describing an intriguing plot development shift, unfortunately in this case it feels more like the intent became obscured by a switch of focus and some clarity of purpose was lost.

Perhaps my reservations about the novel could be answered by integrating all the characters right from the beginning and weaving their stories together toward a final conclusion. That might have required rewriting the entire novel, a daunting prospect for a novel that really is not badly written to begin with.

So, in the end, I enjoyed reading The Whipping Club but I am feeling a dichotomy over rating it. It is a very well written novel and I've been known to rate based on writing ability. I've also been known to rate based on exciting plots in spite of the writing. Here we have skillful writing but the main storyline of the novel felt like it loss it's original focus and changed direction to a different focus - but different isn't always bad.

I've decided to Highly Recommended The Whipping Club, for a first novel, and watch for promising future novels by Henry.

Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from the publisher and TLC for review purposes.
http://tlcbooktours.com

http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite it taking a while to get going I ended up enjoying this book quite a bit. However there were a few situational aspects which tried to bar my path. First off there was the title, come on The Whipping Club? Sounds like some sort of erotic novel, if I hadn't been able to see the cover that title would have put me off right away. (In fact if you type The Whipping Club into Amazon you come up with this and 2 erotic novels). Then there's the fact it was automatically approved on Netgalley...and not because I'm on the publisher's authorised list. Just that suggests they are having trouble getting people to review it. Last, and this can be the real killer, I got a spam comment advertising it, completely unrelated to the content of the post, and without it even being a hey would you like to read this? spam comment. If it hadn't been for the fact that I had almost finished the book at that point it would have annoyed me enough to make me give up on it, but not without some rant about sales tactics. (Which does seem to be what this review is turning in to, I'm sorry).

Anyway onto he book. Well lets see. It did take quite a while to really get going.Actually no, that's not quite true. The first chapter was one of those chapters that really shows promise for a book, and in a way that meant it took a while to get going simply because the following chapters didn't really meet up to those promises. To be completely honest I don't even think the first chapter fitted into the rest of the book, it set some background but I think it actually may have been better to gradually reveal that background information. It might not have meant that the book started off with such a punch but I think overall it would have kept the reader more riveted as they found out the families secrets.

After the one secret had been revealed the book really took off, but I think it actually would have been more interesting up to that point as secrets were gradually revealed to the reader. I prefered the book after the secret was revealed, the extra storyline was more interesting and held my attention better than the storyline had before. I still can't say I liked the characters though, if anything I disliked the mother. That father was okay but seemed completely different in the first chapter, and any area which was looking back than he did in the 'present'. It wasn't different in a good way either, if anything worse.

I don't know I can't say I didn't enjoy it exactly it's just so many elements were a bit meh. And the good elements? Well they were a bit like reading one of those Please, Daddy No! type books...

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, I would like to thank Goodreads for giving me the chance to read this great book. I was one of the winners of the giveaway for The Whipping Club.

This book had me from the very beginning. A Catholic girl, Marian, and a Jewish boy, Ben, coming together and wanting to marry.

Marian taught classes at the Zion school, a Jewish school. Ben was a reporter, trying to make it in this world. Both have many struggles ahead of them.

Marian, finding that she is pregnant with Ben's child, is on her way to meet his parents. She has decided to tell him about the baby after the meeting. All does not go well with the parents. Both are upset to find that Ben wants to marry "this girl". Marian runs out and decides not to tell Ben. She talks with her uncle, Father Brennan, and he "decides" for her to go off to a convent and have her baby and give it up for adoption. Marian does as she is told. Giving up her child is hard.

Marian does come back and marry Ben and keeps her secret. They have a daughter named Joanna. But, as the years go by, Marian is wanting to have her son with her again and goes about trying to find him. She eventually tells Ben her "secret", and finds that he already knew about the boy, Adrian.

Adrian has been in an orphanage and not being treated very well at all. Food for the children in the orphanage was sparse as well as clothing. Rules were to be followed or one was surely to be beaten.

Upon finding Adrian and trying to get full custody was not an easy task for Marian and Ben. A trial period of the summer months were to see if Adrian would finally be given back to his parents. He came into their home and learned of a loving, warm family; even though Adrian could be a prankster and get Joanna and himself into trouble sometimes. But he liked it there and wanted to stay. After an incident at the church, Adrian was taken away back to the orphanage. He did something at the orphanage that made the head nun have him put into the Surtane, a place that were run by the Brothers. Oh, Adrian's life there was no picnic by no means. Brother Ryder had welcomed him to the "Whipping Club". Brother Ryder liked using a wood golf club for punishing the boys.

How will Adrian survive this place? What will become of him? Will his parents be able to gain custody of him?

My kleenex box sat at my side as I finished reading this compelling book. Thank you Deborah Henry for such a great read.

[Tia Bach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haunting and Powerful. A Stunning Debut.

Young and in love, Marian believes Ben can handle the life changing news she plans to share with him. But after an evening of misunderstandings and misguided advice, Marian makes a decision that leaves part of her empty and searching. She gives up her baby.

Fast forward years later, Marian and Ben are married and have a daughter, Johanna. The past comes back in the form of a nurse who befriended Marian during the time she gave up her son. She has news, the boy was not adopted by a lovely American family as Marian had been told. Instead, he is suffering at an orphanage nearby.

Marian and Ben relive the past and finally break down the silence that has buried them for years. They decide to fight for their son, Adrian. It's an uphill battle, a journey through pain, loss, cruelty, lies, and stolen youth.

In a stunning debut, Deborah Henry crafts an emotional tale with characters that reach out from the page. Marian's insecurity and feelings of guilt played on me as much as Ben's confusion and uncertainty and Johanna's desire to be loved and noticed. But nothing pulled on my heartstrings as much as Adrian's tale. He's such a damaged young man, yet he's blessed with an inner strength to survive more than he ever should have had to. Adrian broke my heart with one simple line, one that cut to the core of his pain, "I suppose my crime was being born."

If you are looking for a nice family saga with a happy ending, you won't find it here. But you will find a raw honesty about family struggles and love working its way through the darkest pit. You might want to have some Kleenex close by and find a comfortable reading spot. Once you pick this book up, you won't be able to put it down.

Powerful and haunting, The Whipping Club is a book you won't soon forget. I look forward to more amazing stories from this author.

Note: I received a complimentary copy for review purposes. A positive review was not requested or guaranteed; the views expressed are my own.

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel was beautifully written and the authors fluid writing style alongside a gripping storyline, made you want to read on. It is a deep book that covers many challenging subjects that one cannot contemplate lightly, which the author brings vividly to life so that once you have read this novel you will not forget it. Stark realism, authenticity and pure honesty is what captivates the reader and it is the very brutal bareness and rawness of this book that caught my interest from the very first page. Nothing is glossed over or concealed, but secrets are revealed and hidden scars are uncovered for all to see. The characters are uniquely distinctive and really stand out, so as to make you feel a part of their lives and a part of their story.I felt very emptionally connected to this book and i found it personally utterly captivating. It was an intreguing story that was so gripping i did not want to put it down and, it was quite creepy and haunting. I cannot praise Deborah Henry's writing enough, as it was so poinant and moving and a tale that tugged at the heartstrings of human emotion. Ones views on life can be so singular and reading this novel, was like a breath of fresh air blowing in from a window that had just been opened. For those who want to read something meaningful and thought provoking, then this novel you will find to be utterly truth drawing and something that will leave you totally mesmorized. As a first novel i am totally amazed by the authors skill at this great acomplishment and as to the extent of the depth and detail that was described, is quite brilliant. I was captivated by the very realism of this book and how one could get lost within it so quickly, hence i urge you to read this as it will be forever etched into your memory afterwards. An exciting new novel by an author whom i predict great things for and something that i enjoyed immensly which i will read again and again.

[Sadie Forsythe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won a copy of this book a long time ago, but put off reading it because it looked like it was going to be so heavy. It turned out not to be what I thought, but I'm not sure it was better. This is a hard on to review objectively because I just so strongly disliked it. Everything in this book is grim, even the theoretically happy(ish) ending. It's all people feeling miserable and being miserable to each-other, especially those in position of authority, and all of that misery is offloaded onto the shoulders of a blameless 11-year-old boy. Even the kind characters are often complacent in horrendous abuses. I felt bad when I finished this book and I do not enjoy that experience.

I can say that I had trouble with the points of view. It stared centered solely on Marian and remained so long enough that I settled into the single POV, but then another one popped up and then another and another until we had an omniscient narrator. But it felt willy-nilly. I also sometimes had trouble telling what was meant to be current and what was memory or flashback.

And honestly, I just didn't particularly like any of the characters. I appreciated that Marian was educated and taught by her father to think for herself and be proud of her differences, something you don't see in a lot of mid-60s female characters, but I didn't relate to her. The only ones I came close to caring about were Adrian and Peter and they were brutalized. Peter especially, I felt he was little more than Henry's whipping boy, like she wanted this horrible thing to happen but didn't want to irrevocably contaminate her sympathetic character.

Then, it finished with this rousing declaration to protect the innocent and fight the good fight with a strength of will I didn't sense in any of the characters up that point. In the end, those who actually enjoy depressing book club books this may enjoy this. But it wasn't a winner for me.

[Pat Garmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a First Reads drawing. This was a heart-wrenching look at a boy dropped into the"system" in Ireland during the last half of the 20th century. It is hard to realize how abusive life was for these children even during such recent history. But this is also the story of the family that fought so hard to have their son released from this abusive system. It is an amazing tribute to the power of love.

[Laurie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I struggled to get through this book as I found it a bit boring; I wouldn't recommend it.

[Oriana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall, I have to say I’m indifferent to this book. I was expecting a powerful or at least poignant story that would make me think carefully about the story from the reviews. However, what I read hasn’t affected my life at all, not one tiny bit. It was a good book to read but once finished, was easily put back onto the shelf and forgotten about. I feel the reason for my indifference to this book is due to the book not appealing to my interests rather through any fault of the book.

The characters were developed well but thinking over it, I think there were too many characters that were developed in detail. I understand that Marian and Adrian were the main ones when they were the focus for many chapters on the book. However, Nurse, Sister Agnes and Brother Ryder were developed in rather more detail than some of the other significant characters ( or what I thought to be important characters ) e.g. Ben and Mrs. O’Rourke. I found this a little confusing when reading because I was struggling to identify the importance of the character at that point that we needed to know their background story. Sure, it made each character an individual but there is such a thing as too much information ( on a side note; I constantly had to stop and summarise the story so far whilst reading to remind myself what was going on because of all the tangents describing a character’s history ).

Another thing that irked me a little was the side story of Nurse and her officer. Several chapters were dedicated to the whole build-up of their ‘relationship’ but as soon as it got to a pivotal moment after he found Beth, the whole story was sort of put out of sight again as the Ellis’ struggle took centre stage again. Even after the story was concluding, we never once heard about the three lives again. It made me wonder why introduce the side story in the first place.

Furthermore, Marian’s character also didn’t appeal to me. For almost the whole story after Nurse knocked on her door, all Marian seemed to be able to think about was Adrian and how she should never have let him go. I didn’t get some of the scenes where Marian confessed to Ben that she was scared about Adrian bringing down Jo. That thought had never been mentioned before until the conversation with Ben and it just confused me completely. Also, her thoughts never seemed to change much. It got boring and repetitive for me after a while, and her depression never made sense to me when she still had one child to be grateful for. For me, the tragedy of the story was not so much that Adrian had been neglected and was suffering in the orphanages in Ireland but rather the family left behind on her struggle to get Adrian were suffering and being neglected. On her journey to ‘save’ one person, she brought down three other people instead.

Anyhow, moving on, the style of writing Henry has wasn’t really to my taste. I found her narrative style confusing at times because she wanted to show the thoughts of several characters in the same scene but I managed to get confused easily on which thoughts belonged to who. Also, when putting in a flashback, it wasn’t always clear that it was a flashback until half way through. The books I generally read have a clear start and ending to the flashbacks and it is a style I have gotten used to and like I suppose which is why this book’s style took a while to get used to.

The plot was planned quite well I guess. It flowed well through the book, excluding the side story of Nurse. I have to admit though that the ending of the book was rushed in my opinion. It was an ingenious escape plan created in such a short time, which I guess is the reason the ending was placed in such few chapters ( so the time constraint was emphasised) but I just feel that so little time was placed on tying up the loose ends – what did Jo feel as her brother left; how was she coping with the death of Peter; did Ryder get transferred and to where; what about Sister Agnes and her request to move; the whole story with Beth and Nurse; do the media get wind of Ben leaving jail and when….

What I liked about the book a lot though is the issues it dealt with. The abuse found in Catholic institutions in Ireland at those times is common knowledge to most people living in Ireland and UK but I do think this book looked in detail about why and how the abuse can grow so out of hand. The corruption with the church and state clearly doesn’t help matters when trying to correct these atrocities. The book is a good eye-opener to a lot of different factors that affect the level of abuse found in Ireland and is a good base for someone wanting to look into this issue in far more detail. I also think the fact that this book covers the conflict between the Jewish and Catholic communities in Ireland makes it an interesting read – I will be recommending this read to my catholic friend to see her response to the violence the ‘fathers’ were quite happy to deliver. It certainly hits the nail on the head with the whole idea of whether god wants you to be a do-gooder AND a believer or just a believer to gain access to heaven.

On the whole, despite being indifferent to the book myself, there wasn’t much at fault with the book. It just didn’t appeal to me much as I already had knowledge of the issues beforehand thus it didn’t teach me anything new. The style of writing was rather confusing for me as it was different to what I’m used to and the well-planned plot was ruined by repetitive characters and tangents.

I would recommend that people interested in Ireland’s history give this book a try in particular. It was an easy enough read for the issues that were being dealt with.

Favourite Parts:
First meeting with Beva: "Catholics have rules coming out of their ears"
First meeting of Arian at the Ellis home. The corridor scene with Marion and Adrian represented her love for him beautifully.

[Liander (The Towering Pile) Lavoie · Rating 1 out of 5]

The following review was copied from my blog, The Towering Pile. It was originally published here.


The main character in the Whipping Club, Marian, is a Catholic woman in 1950s Ireland, who gets pregnant before she's married. Her uncle, a priest, convinces her to go to a home where she will carry the baby to term in secrecy, give birth, and give the child away for adoption, hopefully to a nice American home. She agrees to this, even though she's engaged to the Jewish man who impregnated her. After this horrific time in her life, she marries Ben, they have another child, and life goes on, but she never gets over the pain of losing her son, Adrian. When it comes to light that he was not sent to America because he was half-Jewish, and was instead sent to an orphanage in Ireland, Marian and Ben try to get back custody of Adrian. Much pain and suffering ensues.

I really wanted to like this book. It sounded so good, and the reviews I read of it were stellar. Everyone talked about how powerful the story is, and how moving. So, I'm not going to say objectively that this is a bad book, because obviously a lot of people loved it. But I did not like this book.

Through pretty much the whole thing, I had no clue where the plot was going. It meanders about, changing points of view, having the occasional flashback (with no change in voice or anything to let you know that you're now reading about the past). You don't actually see the "whipping club" until approximately 2/3 of the way through the book. I assumed the orphanage was the whipping club, but nope. Just a huge pile of lead up to the actual plot. And some of the points of view didn't really seem to add a whole lot to the story. Take Nurse, for example. First of all, I feel like I don't know this character at all, despite the fact that she does a decent amount of narrating. She might be mentally ill, or maybe just disturbed from working in a horrible orphanage. Some of the things she says and does make no sense, but not even really in a consistent way, and while her story is interesting, it's not really fleshed out, so it's pretty much just a tangent.

As for the horrific subject matter: I already knew that there was abuse in Catholic orphanages. So just telling me that doesn't really impress me. I didn't feel like there was much oomph put into it. Just telling me that a boy has a swollen face from being beaten doesn't make me feel anything more than I would just reading an article on the subject. So I don't really know where people are getting this impression that the book is hard to read because of how powerful it is.

The writing is all right. Like I said, my main complaint was the lack of signal that we're changing times of points of view, which made reading confusing at times. But there's also the occasional line that makes me groan. I kid you not, an angry man was described as being "filled with poisonous venom". Umm, ok. By definition, a poison is something you ingest, and a venom is something that's injected into you, often by a bite. Venom cannot be poisonous. I know this is, like, metaphorical and stuff, but still. Even if venom and poison were the same thing, this phrase would be redundant, so I still wouldn't like it.

1 star. Obviously, judging by other reviews, your mileage may vary.

Full disclosure: Free e-book copy received from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Alex Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

How I felt about this book:
The cover and title- I love this cover- I think its really pretty and intriguing. I like the single lit window shows the chance of hope.

The characters- This is where I got a little iffy in this book. I didn't really fall in love with any of the characters in this book. I thought the mom, Marian, was a little pathetic to be honest. When she was young she gave her son up for adoption- without letting the father, her husband know about it. Then she spends the rest of her life kind of listless and depressed. I can empathize with all of this and I feel bad for her. I just thought her mood swings and listlessness were too abrupt and I couldn't like her as much as I was hoping too. I thought I could fall in love with the husband then- he had a son out there he didn't know about so I felt sad for him- but I couldn't love him either. He had a tendency to give up on his loved ones way too easily. They were fighting to get their son back but he wasn't falling in love with his son like I wanted him too. When the authorities were set on taking his son away he was just too complacent for me. Marian and Ben had a daughter after she gave Adrian up for adoption that I also liked but she was a little too jealous and had a tendency to think of her actions after she's done them.

My favorite character from this book was Adrian. I liked him because he was very brave and showed steel in the toughest possible times but I think I felt too sorry for him and his situation to fall in love with him. I couldn't get behind him like I hoped to as he fought for his situation.

There was a host of other characters but I really want a hero to fall in love with in a book and there was no one that really became that hero for me. All in all, I found the characters in this book just a little too flawed to fall in love with. This being said, there were tons of characters to hate that did help drive the story.

The story- I thought this story sounded so interesting when I requested it on netgalley and it really was an interesting and gripping story. I liked how the author showed not only how Adrian's life was in his orphanage but also how his family was dealing without him. This was a gritty story that showed great emotion and there weren't many parts in this story that dragged. I think the one thing I didn't like about the story was there were very few just happy moments for the family where they could enjoy being together which I think would have invested me emotionally.

Overall- If I had a rating system I would give this book a 3.5/5. I liked the story line but the characters are the ones that brought this book down for me. I couldn't fall in love with any of the characters and while I really liked Adrian but he couldn't carry this book alone. I was fine with the rawness of the book and the topics in it and I would say this book is definitely worth a read despite some of the characters being a little too flawed. I would recommend this book to adult fiction readers who are ok with some language, violence, religious topics, and other very adult topics.

[Julie Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review first appeared on my blog:

http://www.knittingandsundries.com/20...

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

[Mirella · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Whipping Club is a timely novel that makes a powerful statement, revealing the sufferings of victims and families at the hands of the Catholic Church in the mid 1900 19s. Although the story focuses on Ireland 19s orphanages, Magdalene Laundries, and homes for unwed mothers, parallels can be drawn in many other countries where survivors of similar institutions are coming forward.

The story centers around one family. Marian is a Catholic teacher at a Zionist school who falls in love with a young Jewish man named Ben. When she discovers she is pregnant, she tries to tell Ben, but his mother 19s antagonism at her religious background forces her to keep her secret. Instead, she enters into a special hospital/home for unwed mothers where she puts her son up for adoption, assured he will find a good family in America.

Marian and Ben marry and they have a young daughter. All seems perfect until one day, she learns the son she gave up for adoption is still in the Catholic orphanage she originally left him in. Ben and Marian take legal action to acquire custody of their son, Adrian, and begin to assimilate him into their lives. But he is under the custody of the nuns at the orphanage and they, together with the court system, maintain their hold and custody of the boy.

Not for the faint of heart, this novel addresses several complicated and painful issues that are coming forward in today 19s society. For the sake of the survivors, it is important to learn about what truly happened, to understand, and to learn from these mistakes so that such things never occur again. As a Catholic myself, it was a shattering experience to read about the harsh punishments, cruelties, and sexual abuse against innocent children and the prejudices against unwed mothers. I admired the fact the author took care to not only portray depraved or cruel religious members, but also those who were loving and kind, albeit the former outweighed the latter in numbers.

What I admire is that the author had the courage to deal with such contentious issues such as deeply ingrained religious beliefs, transgressions, mercy, and the devastating consequences of not speaking out. This novel has depth and punch. It is not a light read 13 one should not skim over the words light-heartedly. Rather, readers need to prepare themselves to face a realm of emotions as they read and try to understand the true purpose for which the author wrote such a story. This heart-wrenching tragic drama has depth and richness. Despite the painful topic, the author leaves the reader with hope at the end. Bravo Deborah Henry for having the courage to address such tragic and painful realities in our recent past.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the book:

Deborah Henry's new historical novel, THE WHIPPING CLUB (T.S Poetry Press, March 2012, available in print and e-book formats) is a literary page-turner and a tale of redemption, set against the backdrop of violence and deeply entrenched prejudice in 1960s Ireland as told through the heartrending experience of one inter-faith family. In it, an Irish Catholic woman, Marian, in love with a Jewish journalist hides the birth of her out-of-wedlock child to save her future marriage. The child she has relinquished does not end up with an American family as promised. Instead, he is committed to a notorious Catholic orphanage where there is little hope for his survival.

Tormented by feelings of remorse and guilt that have plagued her throughout her marriage to the boy's father, the woman must confront the truth and reveal her long-buried secret. While putting her marriage and family at risk, she determines to save her son and in so doing correct the terrible wrongs of her own past and challenge a system that chronically serves up children to abusive clergy.

My review:

This was a very interesting read for me, something that was completely outside of my comfort zone.

I felt that the author did a very good job of developing her characters from the good Catholic mother Marian, the Jewish father Ben, sister Johanna and Adrian, the child that was given away. It was easy to relate to their personalities and behaviors. The story begins with Marian being rejected by Ben's mother and deciding to enter a "convent" to deal with the baby she felt was unwanted. As the story goes on, it's revealed that Ben knows more than he let on. Johanna, the "kept" child, begins to sense that there's something going on and gets involved when she overhears some conversations. Adrian has no clue that he has a family and it comes a surprise when they come to visit. Unfortunately this is not a happily ever after story and there are quite a few horrible scenarios spelled out.

I thought the book was a bit long. It took 40 chapters (although some were really short) to get to the point of the title. I think the story could have been told in much less words. I related to the characters and enjoyed the development of the personalities. I did think this was something that could and probably did happen during the time period related to the book. Overall, I thought the book was well done and the story was told in an engaging manner.

I received the galley of this book from the publisher on NetGalley, for the purpose of review. Opinions expressed are my own.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marian McKeever plans on telling Ben Ellis he's going to be a father sometime on the evening she meets his parents. Circumstances conspire to keep this her secret. Her uncle, Father Brennan, locates a home run by nuns he describes as kind. When he takes Marian there, she feels rushed, signing consent forms she hasn't the time to read. She finds herself in a version of hell she cannot escape. And when the time finally comes for her to leave the home she has no choice but to leave her infant son Adrian behind, too. Marian believes Nurse, the only friend she's had for the past months, will see to it Adrian is adopted by Americans. Marian wraps her son in hope and hides him deep in her heart. Her secret.

Move forward a bit over eleven years. Marian and Ben have married and have a daughter, Johanna. Their lives are busy and not uneventful, mixed marriages (she is Catholic, he Jewish) can be complicated. Their families have never approved and their friends (of one religion or the other) won't even come in their house. Johanna has inherited Marian's fiery temper and penchant for attracting negative attention from the nuns at school. Ben is a journalist trying to convince his editor to cover controversial issues. And Marian has kept her secret, with all the guilt, shame, pain and longing, to herself. Then a strange woman appears while Marian is out and leaves behind a note. That woman was Nurse and Marian soon learns her son is in an orphanage about an hour away! Sadly, he is not one of the nuns favorites. Having lived in institutions his entire life, Adrian is no stranger to hunger, humiliation, physical and mental abuse. When Marian gathers the courage to tell Ben about his son, his reaction is nothing she'd expected. Marian desperately wants to bring her son home.

This book addresses issues many would rather avoid. Based on the scandal concerning institutions run by religious communities in Ireland and the abuse children were forced to endure, it highlights the dangers of allowing Church to dictate to State. Please don't kid yourself into believing this is an isolated incident or limited to religious communities. Children are the easiest victims, seeking love and safety, all too often finding only suffering and abuse. Too many are viewed as throw-aways, disenfranchised, marginalized, lost. Society must recognize this situation exists and then must actually do something to change, to free these victims and allow them a future.

I won this book on Goodreads. Because of the subject I was conflicted and am now grateful I put my fears aside - this book should be on everyone's reading list.

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

How many lives can be affected, even ruined, by one poor choice, one indescretion, one misguided attempt to bury the past? Mirian and Ben were in love once, the passionate young love that disregards faith, family, friends or any other outside influence which might tear them apart. They loved wildly and with little thought of the future, until Mirian learned that the future resided in her. Hidden away in shame, Mirian gives birth and gives up young Adrian, thinking to give both him, herself, and Ben a better chance at a good life. But no one gets off that easy in this disturbingly immersive tale of broken promises and lost dreams.

Children suffer at the hands of the adults who are tasked to protect them. The Whipping Club exposes the horrors of living in an orphanage, as well as the discomfort of living among parents who can not, or will not, open themselves up to their family. Life is terrifying in so many different ways, and the escapes provided to children are few, if any. Deborah Henry's narrative on a time and place where children were often discarded and ignored in the name of poverty and/or ill-timed births was all too real takes hold of its reader and reminds us that it is too easy to close our eyes to these situations, both then and now. For even though this is a historical tale, it is obviously not isolated to the time period in which it is written. Henry drives this point home in the details - a mother's guilt, a father's boredom, a nurse's disenfranchisement with the system she's helped to keep afloat... these are relatable topics that span centuries and continents. Her writing style, with internal character rants and flashbacks inserted into the story at seemingly random moments, keeps the reader a bit off-centered, putting them on even footing with the confusion, frustration and helplessness felt by the main characters.

[Kai · Rating 4 out of 5]

After finishing The Whipping Club, I was just so angry at the orphan institutions especially that they judged the children by their parents' behaviors. The sins of the mothers/fathers is the burden these orphans carried even though it is not their faults. I'm upset with the nuns and brothers that run the orphanage. Whatever donation that is given to the orphanage ended up in their pockets. Just because they have the church behind them, they manipulated the court systems. Who is the judge to believe? the parents and child or the church? I am not criticizing the church but the bad apples that make their way into the system.

Children are taught. Negative enforcement have destructive consequences later on in their life.

Marian made the mistake of not telling Ben that she was pregnant. Back in the 1950's, this was not looked upon as a thing a nice girl would do out of wedlock. After being influenced by her uncle, Father Bernnan, and the circumstances with Ben's mother, and the point that she is Catholic and Ben is Jewish, she went to the place where young ladies go to give up their babies secretly.

Marian discovered that her son Adrian was not adopted by an American Family and was still there at the orphanage being mistreated. She and Ben tried to get their son back. At this point, I would think that the orphanage would released Adrian but orphans are nothing but slave labor and income to them. OK, I am upset again over this injustice. These orphanages are damaging the children's behavior. And they do this all in the name of God. Heretic and the hypocrisy of them all. That's what I'm angry about.

Adrian has to go through struggle just to get out of this institution. He couldn't even communicated that the orphanage is abusing, child-molesting and raping them to his parents since he was being watched.

[Andrea at Reading Lark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review Posted on Reading Lark 8/5/12: http://readinglark.blogspot.com/2012/...
*3.5 Rating

I have long been enamored with the Emerald Isle. Countless daydreams of visiting Ireland have littered my thoughts since childhood. I can't seem to get enough of the magic and lore. I typically jump at the chance to read any book connected to Ireland which is what inspired my choice to accept a spot on this tour.

The Whipping Club is a sweeping historical fiction that spans two generations and showcases the harsh conditions of the Irish Industrial school system. Deborah Henry also uses the novel as a vehicle to discuss religious discrimination and mixed faith relationships. There are so many thought provoking moments that litter this text, but the emotional impact can be quite taxing. To truly enjoy novels such as this one I have to be in the right frame of mind. While I can see the many merits of this novel, it was a hard one for me to get through. My heart broke on more than one occasion and the last sentence didn't deliver a sense of emotional closure.

Henry's writing is stellar and supported by the depth of her historical research. I did enjoy this one, but it was hard for me to love when it was so tragic. As a historian, I appreciate this novel and hope to return to it one day when I am in a more appropriate frame of mind. My heart just couldn't get past itself to let my brain revel in the writing. I was saddened and disturbed by the discrimination and abuse that lingered within these pages.

One Last Gripe: I typically read for enjoyment and to escape the stresses of every day life. This novel did not allow me to indulge in either reason.

My Favorite Thing About This Book: Learning more about a part of Irish history that I was unfamiliar with

First Sentence: Marian spent the morning in Dr. O'Connell's office.