In Hogan’s debut novel, a pregnant teenager’s life is irrevocably changed when she’s sent to a home and school for unwed mothers in conservative 1950s Tennessee.
After 17-year-old Joanna Wilson becomes pregnant, she quickly finds herself in in a Southern gothic nightmare. She suffers physical abuse at the hands of her father, and her married lover, Jack Wyatt, who’s still devoted to his injured wife, sends her off to the Frances Weston Home in Knoxville. It’s a place for young unmarried women to give birth, away from the prying eyes of judgmental Tennessee society; for the women sequestered there, it’s both a schoolhouse and a jail, where the wardens are stoic, “crowlike” nuns. This prisonlike setting, where everything beyond the house’s gardens is off-limits, is fertile ground for Hogan to explore the culture and misogyny of a classist, racist 1950s and ’60s America. The real horror of the home for unwed mothers, however, is not simply its restrictiveness, but what happens to the babies; they’re put up for adoption, no matter what their mothers’ wishes are, and the women never know exactly what becomes of their children. As time passes, the novel follows Joanna and others from the home as they enter adulthood, exploring how they grapple with the trauma of separation. Over the course of the novel, Hogan’s prose is pared down but deliberate, reflecting the staid resilience of her central characters. The narrative, while alarming, is very much grounded in the reality of the time and place in which it’s set. It’s clear that many women in similar situations never received answers about what happened to their children, but in this novel, Hogan does offer a hint of relief. Overall, it’s a narrative that builds slowly, hovering on a photograph as a missing piece in a puzzle, and coalescing in a resounding defense of women’s reproductive autonomy.
An elegantly written and damning narrative.
- KIRKUS INDIE
"Unbroken Bonds vividly captures the terrible vulnerability of young white women in the United States in the decades before "reproductive rights" became available to any but the wealthiest of us. Dawn Hogan richly portrays the dozens of ways that sexuality and its consequences endangered the safety and dignity of girls and women when their only source of strength was each other. This novel is a great read. It is also a cautionary tale. If we fail to recognize the truths of Hogan’s novel, then girls and women may, quite possibly, be forced to face similar dangers in the future."
- Rickie Solinger, author of Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race before Roe v. Wade
"While Unbroken Bonds is a novel, the characters might have been your mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, or the girls with whom you went to school. Each of the young women’s narratives are carefully crafted, and realistic. Finding it difficult to put the book down, we watch each teenager develop into a unique woman who processes the changes wrought in the decades as they go by and finds strength in her own history and from those who love her. As a birth mother myself, I know the pain and confusion surrounding the relinquishment of one’s child. Dawn Hogan has done meticulous research into the feelings, psychology and aftermath of this experience. I believe this book goes a long way to help the public understand the need for unsealing records and helping first mothers heal the wounds created by the loss of their children."
-Fran Gruss Levin, Author of The Story of Molly and Me--A Memoir, and CUB Board Member.
“As an adoptee, coming to a place of acceptance I’ve had to put myself in the shoes of my first mother at the time of my conception to gain a better understanding of what life was like back then. Unbroken Bonds takes its readers on a journey of the essential facts of what many first mothers experience. It shares how extraordinarily difficult our times can be when it comes to unwed and unplanned pregnancy. Dawn shares several sides of the coin, all real and raw glimpses of what first mothers go through. This is a side that needs to be considered among society today. Although times have changed in some regard, we must be awakened in the truths that separation trauma for the adoptee and first mother lasts a lifetime.”
-Pamela Karanova, Adoptees Connect, Inc.
"Buckle up for a fast paced journey through the shocking world of "unwed pregnancy" following WWII. Unbroken Bonds will introduce you to four resilient women who survived overwhelming loss, by forging a life-long connection. Their friendship evolved as a result of a chance meeting, in one of many, infamous maternity homes, of the era. Their stories shed light on the estimated 4 milllion mothers, whose well-kept secrets, have never been told. Instructed to cut ties with one another, and never to speak of the traumatic events they endured, these brave souls defied convention and found a way to stay joined. While life took them down divergent paths, their attachment only solidified as a result of their shared grief. And that attachment bound them together, as family. Society & cultural changes came fast and furiously in the ensuing decades and life presented each one with a series of unique challenges. Just as it is for many, it was their formidable "sisterhood" that sustained them through life."
-Leslie Pate Mackinnon
Leslie Pate Mackinnon L.C.S.W. has practiced psychotherapy for four decades. She’s been featured on GOOD MORNING AMERICA, CNN, DAN RATHER REPORTS and THE KATIE COURIC SHOW along with her oldest son. Leslie is featured in a book The Girls Who Went Away, and a documentary A GIRL LIKE HER.
