Lost child of Philomena Lee

[cynthia-t]

This is a sad and true story of how the Catholic Church in Ireland illegally sold Irish babies of unwed mothers to American families. The adopted children’s birth mothers and the little children had no rights: babies were taken away with little or no warning, mothers were not allowed any information about the families adopting their children, babies would never know who their birth mothers were.
The first chapters of LOST CHILD OF PHILOMENA LEE by Martin Sexsmith I found heartbreaking. It is actually the biography of Anthony, the son of Philomena Lee (in the US his name is changed to Mike Hess), who, with a little girl of the same age, was adopted by the Hess family. Most of this book follows his story to his adulthood and political career in the Reagan administration. I found too much of the writing by Sexsmith very journalistic in style and lacked credence: how would the author know what a 4 year old child would whisper to his 3 year old ‘sister’ 50 or so years ago? And in fluent Gaelic? How could the writer know what was in the mind of a child at that time and would a child’s thoughts be so adult? I had a myriad questions about what happened to Philomena, the birth mother, and about Anthony/Mike’s little ‘sister’, but was disappointed.
The movie “Philomena” with Judi Dench is the story of Philomena Lee, Anthony’s birth mother, who could still be alive in Ireland.

[laureng]

I loved the movie and enjoyed the book. I know some people felt mislead when they read the retitled book that included "movie tie-in" in the title, as the book focuses more on Michael and not Philomena, however I did not feel this way. To answer your last question about Philomena still being alive, as of this year (earlier this year at least) she was still living, though she is into her 90's by now I think.

[cynthia-t]

Hi Laureng. I read the original book by Sexsmith which concentrated on the story of Michael. Then came the movie which was the story of Philomena and her search for her son. This was followed by the retitled book which was the movie tie-in. So I understand. During the making of the movie Philomena and Judi Dench worked with Sexsmith and apparently they even had a meeting with the Pope. Yes, I believe Philomena is getting on in years and still alive. A book by Kathleen O'Malley, "Childhood Interrupted" covers the sad subject of the adopted babies in Ireland.

[Salma Siddiqui]

This book is truly heartbreaking. I was prompted to read it after I watched the movie (which I loved). I was surprised to find that it was mostly from the son's point-of-view and not Philomena's! I think that the film adaptation provides audiences with two ways to discover the story. The book ends with Martin Sixsmith hinting at a book about Michael Hess' father, though I'm not sure if there has indeed been one published.