The Degenerates

 By: J.Albert Mann

Location: FIC MAN

Genre: Historical Fiction

“Respectful, unflinching, and eye-opening.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Historical fiction that not only depicts a cruel, horrifying reality but also the strength and courage of the people who had to endure it.” —Booklist

In the tradition of Girl, Interrupted, this fiery historical novel follows four young women in the early 20th century whose lives intersect when they are locked up by a world that took the poor, the disabled, the marginalized—and institutionalized them for life.

The Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded is not a happy place. The young women who are already there certainly don’t think so. Not Maxine, who is doing everything she can to protect her younger sister Rose in an institution where vicious attendants and bullying older girls treat them as the morons, imbeciles, and idiots the doctors have deemed them to be. Not Alice, either, who was left there when her brother couldn’t bring himself to support a sister with a club foot. And not London, who has just been dragged there from the best foster situation she’s ever had, thanks to one unexpected, life altering moment. Each girl is determined to change her fate, no matter what it takes.

"J. Albert Mann’s talent is making history come alive in such a personal way that you feel you are the main character living in this time in history. This time Mann lets the reader live through four young women living in a Massachusetts mental institution in the early 1900s.

London is locked up for being “morally feeble-minded” aka pregnant out of wedlock, Maxine is a “moron”, Alice is a “moron” and has a clubfoot, and Rose has Down’s Syndrome. Mann uses all four points of view to tell the story so the reader gets to be four different women at once. Each girl has a secret that reveals how humans are always human, whether in the 1900s or today.

Reading The Degenerates is an immersive experience that I didn’t want to end. I miss each and every one of these young women now that the book is over." Robin