A review by cgcpoems
The Lost Child of Philomena Lee by Martin Sixsmith

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

2.25

Sixsmith stumbled into an interesting, engaging story, but didn’t quite know what to do with it. The jacket is a bit misleading—this book is 95% about Philomena’s son and only 5% about her. I would’ve liked to have seen both of their stories given the care that Michael’s had, though suppose that perhaps Philomena preferred not to be in the book.

I enjoyed reading this, but thought the largely reconstructed dialogue supposedly from interviews read very stiff. It would’ve been better to just summarize these conversations with brief mentions to specific dialogue, rather than try to make this read like fiction. I didn’t like that the author tried to invent feelings and thoughts for the subject of the book, either, who was not around to confirm or deny this. 

Additionally, after finishing this book I’ve read testimonies from folks that appeared in it saying that not only were details completely invented and false, but the author did not approve these changes before publication of the book. Given that this is not the author’s story to tell, I take issue with that and am disappointed to learn that much of this book is hearsay. I won’t be reading anything else from this author.