“The Foundling” by Ann

Leary

By JOSEPH W. SMITH III West Branch Life

From 1913 to 1998, there was an institution near Mifflinburg with a rather disturbing name: the Laurelton State Village for FeebleMinded Women of Child-Bearing Age. Though both its name and nature changed in later years, the facility’s initial purpose was even scarier than this awkward appellation

Laurelton was tied to the American eugenics movement of the early 20th century Championed by such figures as J H Kellogg, Margaret Sanger and Alexander Graham Bell, this ill-advised crusade sought to “purify” the populace by artificially curbing pregnancy among disenfranchised groups, specifically minorities, the poor and disabled. Eventually resulting in countless forced sterilizations, the movement also had a marked influence on Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich.

Institutions like Laurelton targeted supposedly “inferior” women, confining them through menopause so they could not reproduce. Even more distressing, many of these placements occurred not because of actual disability. The socalled patients had conveniently been labeled “feeble” or “defective” due to some moral lapse (usually sexual promiscuity) or simply because their husbands didn’t want to be married to them anymore.

That last suggestion is from Ann Leary’s “The Foundling,” a terrific 2022 novel that is set at Laurelton Leary fictionalizes her locale by renaming it “Nettleton,” but there will nonetheless be strong local interest for Central PA readers, even though the book fudges some surrounding geography

Despite the inherent fascination of this institution, Leary recognizes setting alone will not suffice to sustain a fulllength novel No A book like this needs an actual story to en gage readers to pu flesh and bone on th tragedy and trauma Laurelton and other similar facilities An fortunately, “The Foundling” boasts a narrative that is inge iously complex and compelling Leary’s protagoni is an 18-year-old orphan named Mary Engle, who takes a job as a secretary at Nettleton. Naïve bu likable, Mary is an “unreliable narrator ” She is not merely clueless about how bad things are. She actually thinks Nettleton is a wonderful place, having fallen under the spell of Dr. Agnes Vogel, a surrogate motherfigure who runs the institution

Then one day, our narrator bumps into the titular inmate one Lillian Faust, whom she had known at a longago orphanage Well aware that Lillian is not mentally disabled and can’t possibly belong at Nettleton, Mary begins trying to help her old friend and gradually comes to see the truth

On this framework, Leary constructs a gripping narrative with several effective plot-strands involving Mary’s past, her love-affair with a local journalist, her complex relationship with Vogel and eventually, her courageous attempt to help Lillian escape, which makes for an action-packed climax.

“The Foundling” also features nifty twists, careful research and beautifully written prose Among its strongest points, there are three-dimensional characters who never lose their humanity even as we come to see their flaws and weaknesses

It’s a solid piece of literature that is well suited to book groups But in preparing for those discussions, you might first want to read the hair-raising Wikipedia entry called “Eugenics in the United States,” which will leave you asking, “How did this happen?”

“The Foundling” provides an answer In doing so, it also serves as a wake-up call for caution about trendy cultural movements with broad popular support.