Part feminist road trip, part morality tale about attitudes towards children with Down syndrome, Keeping Lucy is a satisfying read. It is 1969 when Ginny Richardson gives birth to a baby girl, Lucy, with the genetic condition. The doctors keep her drugged while her husband and his father sign the baby over to a local “school,” Willowridge, where she will live permanently. Ginny protests but is given assurances that Lucy is better off having no contact with her family. It is 2 years later when Ginny’s old friend Marsha calls her to tell her that there has been an exposé in the local newspaper about Willowridge, revealing terrible conditions and abuse of the children. Ginny can wait no longer and goes to meet Lucy and take her for a weekend. She finds the news story is true, and Lucy has been badly neglected. Ginny and Marsha’s weekend trip turns into a flight from the law.

As the novel unfolds, we learn more about Ginny’s marriage to Ab, who comes from a wealthy Boston family, and the contrast with her own more modest childhood. Ginny feels betrayed by Ab and the question is whether their marriage will survive, but the answer is not hard to guess. Ginny’s friendship with Marsha is a lot more interesting — they are old friends, but they have had quite different lives. Marsha is wild, independent, and very able to assert herself. Ginny learns a lot from her as they travel south. The book is also informative about the shocking attitudes towards babies with conditions like Down Syndrome back in the 1960s, when they were often allowed to die from easily correctable medical problems because they were thought to be better off dead. Ginny knows in her heart that Lucy is better off at home, and it turns out that Lucy has many capabilities that the doctors said that she would not.

This is a well told and uplifting story with likable characters and also a couple of villains who turn out to have their own secrets. It is about motherhood, disability, and female friendship, and its message is worthwhile. The performance of the unabridged audiobook by Therese Plummer has a range of Massachusetts accents and plenty of energy.

© 2019 Christian Perring

Christian Perring teaches in NYC.