Book Review No 1 AWW2013 Goodbye Lullaby - Jan Murray

Australia in 1971 is caught up in the turmoil of conscription for the Vietnam war. A lone woman, Miki (aka Caroline) is on a one woman crusade, aiding those who want to avoid being forcibly sent to war. Constantly on the move and continually evading the law, Miki's mission is personal. Her son, Dominic, whom she was forced to give up for adoption is the right age to be conscripted. And his birthdate just got drawn in the lottery....

Goodby Lullaby swtiches between Miki's campaign in 1971 and her teenage years in the early 1950s. She and best friend Jude are just ordinary Catholic schoolgirls in suburban Brisbane, until Miki discovers she is pregnant. Sent to the notorious St Anthony's home for unwed mothers, Miki resists the immense pressure to give her son up - a decision she is forced to renegge a few years later when the realities of single parenthood in the 1950s hit home.

The characters of Miki and Jude are well drawn and you cannot help but be taken in by their youthful exuberance and determination to bring up Dominic on their own. Miki's raw pain at having to give her child away is evident in the adult she becomes - a truth that many women would be able to relate to.

I thought the book captured the societal expectations of each era well - both from parents and institutions like the Catholic Church. I'm not sure if St Anthony's was a real place in Brisbane, but if not there would certainly have been a true life version of it.

While the switching between different eras was easy enough to follow, I didn't really get the sense of the different decades involved. The early 1950s and early 1970s were poles apart in terms of societal change, but to me the 1950s in Goodbye Lullaby seemed to blend into the 1970s. In saying that though, each was historically accurate with references to relevant happenings of each era.

Just to be a bit nit-picky, the language used in both eras was sometimes inaccurate - phrases like 'eye candy' and 'we're out of here', (to name a couple) were not in use then, nor would the term lawyer have been used (until quite recently they were always solicitors in Australia). The term 'drafted' was also interchanged with conscripted - (drafted was the American term). But this is just a minor quibble.

Easy to read and touching on a subject that brough heartbreak to thousands of women, Goodbye Lullaby is both poignant and inspiring.