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216 reviews for:
Philomena (Movie Tie-In): A Mother, Her Son, and a Fifty-Year Search
Martin Sixsmith
3.49 AVERAGE
216 reviews for:
Philomena (Movie Tie-In): A Mother, Her Son, and a Fifty-Year Search
Martin Sixsmith
3.49 AVERAGE
I understand that there was some controversy over this book and the fact that that conversations were not factual. No one is going to remember conversations that they had 10-20-30 years ago, understandable but I think it still was a great story and conveyed thoughts/feelings. I did not get the impression that Michael was a depressed, lost soul. I got the impression that he loved the people in his life and felt that something/one was missing and wanted to find his mother to show her what he had become and find out about his history. Anyway, I'm sorry for those who knew him that felt that this did not do justice to his life. From the sounds of it, he was an amazing person and that would have been hard to capture, as we are all complex beings.
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Good book. Felt slightly misled, this book is not as much about a mothers search for her child rather it focuses almost solely on his life and therefore let me feeling like I'd just read the biography of, admittedly a very interesting man. It was interesting to learn about the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the US but not really what I was expecting to read about when I started the book.
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Invented biography. Well-written but misleading and disingenuous
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Pregnancy, Outing, Alcohol
Although the subject matter is incensing and the story focused almost solely on the son (I would've liked to have known much more about the mother)by about half way I could not put it down. Although I found out what happened to Michael from my book club meeting (I had hesitated to start the book when I went) I became eager to keep reading and experience what it was like, not just to grow up being taken from your mother and homeland, but as a gay man in 1970s and 80s America. The fact that he achieved so much despite these impediments is even more amazing.
fast-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
I devoured "Philomena" in a single day, and enjoyed it. But it wasn't the book I was expecting, nor did it tell the story I really wanted to hear, which is how Philomena Lee herself managed her grief and pain after the horror that was inflicted upon her. What keeps me from giving this book more stars is my discomfort with the attention that was devoted to describing Anthony Lee/Michael Hess's sexual orientation. I'm concerned that, depending upon the attitude of the reader, incorrect connections are going to be drawn between adoptee sexual orientation and experiences of loss. It felt like a terrible invasion of his privacy in an area that may or may not have been directly related to the loss of his mother, his adoption and his subsequent difficult relationship with his adoptive family. Regardless, though, this is a book that must be read to understand just how cruel the world can be - and still is - to unmarried mothers and their children.