Philomena

A Mother, Her Son, and a Fifty-Year Search

By: Martin Sixsmith

Narrated by: John Curless

Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Now a major motion picture directed by Stephen Frears (The Queen, High Fidelity) and starring Judi Dench (Skyfall, Notes on a Scandal) and Steve Coogan (The Trip, Hamlet 2): the heartbreaking true story of an Irishwoman and the secret she kept for 50 years. When she became pregnant as a teenager in Ireland in 1952, Philomena Lee was sent to a convent to be looked after as a "fallen woman". Then the nuns took her baby from her and sold him, like thousands of others, to America for adoption. Fifty years later, Philomena decided to find him.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Philomena's son was trying to find her. Renamed Michael Hess, he had become a leading lawyer in the first Bush administration, and he struggled to hide secrets that would jeopardize his career in the Republican Party and endanger his quest to find his mother.

A gripping exposé told with novelistic intrigue, Philomena pulls back the curtain on the role of the Catholic Church in forced adoptions and on the love between a mother and son who endured a lifelong separation.

©2009 Martin Sixsmith (P)2013 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

“A searingly poignant account of forced adoption and its consequences.” ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

“Heartbreaking . . . a story that needed to be told.” ( The Independent)

“Emotionally compelling.” ( Library Journal)

The Biography of a Nobody

Ok, that sounds harsh and I don’t mean to disrespect anyone… but I could not help thinking that as I read, no matter how interesting it may have been.

I read the book for the predictable reason: because I want to read it before seeing the movie – but based on what I’ve heard of the movie that was pointless because the movie’s about Philomena and the book’s about her long lost child.

If there was no movie-motive attached, I think after finishing the book I would have felt like: “what was the point”.

I want to be tactful

This book is beautifully narrated, well written... and both the beginning and end are touching and poignant. My heart aches for Philomena and her son... however, this is not Philomena's story at all... it is the story of her son and his forced adoption from Ireland into a dysfunctional American family. His successes, failures and behavior that sounds much like Borderline Personality Disorder. The middle of this book drags you into leather and whip male relationships... and much more... I was forced to repeatedly fast forward. I did feel like it is a bait and switch book with a very liberal and political agenda being promoted. I was very unhappy with the false advertising.

Philomena

This story began very well. Midway it got muddled down in the homosexual character development of one of the main characters. I found this offensive and did not finish the volume. There was an occasional use of profanity which did not overwhelm the narrative in itself. And there were a couple of scenes which a man kissed another man, nevertheless, at least to the point that I stopped listening, there were no graphically descriptive scenes of sexual activity but I felt there was too much time spent on this character development and I therefore did not finish the volume.

BOGUS book notes

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

If it had been about Philomena it might have been a good book.

What was most disappointing about Martin Sixsmith’s story?

The blurb didn't match the book at all. I wish I'd read the reviews. I would NOT have bought it.

Bait and Switch

I thought I was going to read a story about a woman and her son who find each other. Wrong! It was about a man and his gay lifestyle. I'm not in the least against gays buy not interested in his sex life, as I'm sure he wasn't interested in mine. I felt used.

Not what I expected

Too much about Michaels sex life. Took away from the story. Not enough about Philomena whom the book is named after.

I narrowly escaped death by boredom

This is one case in which the movie is much better than the book. I liked the narrator well enough. He enunciates, and doesn't stoop to melodrama, as one might be tempted to do. I did learn a few things about how things ran in Ireland in the 1950's, and that is worth a couple of stars.