About the book-
When the Dionne Quintuplets were born on May 28, 1934, weighing a grand total of just over 13 pounds, no one expected them to live so much as an hour. Overnight, Yvonne, Annette, Cécile, Émilie, and Marie Dionne mesmerized the globe, defying medical history with every breath they took. In an effort to protect them from hucksters and showmen, the Ontario government took custody of the five identical babies, sequestering them in a private, custom-built hospital across the road from their family--and then, in a stunning act of hypocrisy, proceeded to exploit them for the next nine years. The Dionne Quintuplets became a more popular attraction than Niagara Falls, ogled through one-way screens by sightseers as they splashed in their wading pool at the center of a tourist hotspot known as Quintland. Here, Sarah Miller reconstructs their unprecedented upbringing with fresh depth and subtlety, bringing to new light their resilience and the indelible bond of their unique sisterhood.
My thoughts-
I love stories about spontaneous multiple births because I have spontaneous mirror image identical twin boys. There are some days I look at them at 9 years old, and I still can't believe that they exist. I will be honest, I didn't even realize it was possible to have quintuplets spontaneously, but that just added to intrigue of the Dionne family story to me. It makes me sad the things these girls went through throughout their lives, including their very strange beginning. While the doctor and nurses may have initially had their best interest at heart, their lives turned into a peep show of sorts for the gawking public. What makes the most sad is that they count those as some of the best times in their lives. As adolescence and adults they also went through some tough stuff. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in non-fiction.
No comments:
Post a Comment