Fabulous Fiction Firsts #259

Fri, 04/29/2011 - 3:21pm by muffy

Who could resist a love story?

The Story of Beautiful Girl, Rachel Simon's fiction debut comes on the heel of her well-received memoir - Riding the Bus with My Sister: A True Life Journey, that chronicles the year-long series of bus journeys through a Pennsylvania city alongside her mentally disabled sister and the lessons she learned. It has been adapted for a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, starring Rosie O'Donnell and Andie MacDowell.

Her novel is the love story between a developmentally disabled young white woman and a deaf African American that span 40 years, despite insurmountable obstacles. On a rainy night in 1968, Lynnie Goldberg and Homan Wilson escaped from The School for the Incurable and Feebleminded, and found short-lived refuge with a retired schoolteacher, Martha. When Lynnie was being recaptured, Homan fled, leaving Martha to care for their infant daughter delivered in her attic. Over the next 40 years, Lynnie and Homan never stopped searching for each other.

While the description of life for the institutionalized is bleak and heartbreaking, one is sustained by the overwhelming love and faith between Lynnie and Homan, and the fortuitous (and inspiring) kindness of strangers.

For other titles about the developmentally disabled, try Like Normal People by Karen E. Bender and Small Victories : a novel by Sallie Bingham.