Review: The Good People

The Good People by Hannah Kent
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An absorbing story of three women and their attemtps to "cure" a severely disabled child - all of them convinced he is a "changeling" (a fairy subsitute for the real child). The lengths they go to are shocking and disturbing, making you realise how poorly understood disability was in the 19th Century (when the book is sent) - particularly in communities in which people were poorly educated. At best, you'd be written off as a "cretin" (which is actually a medical term) or condemmed for being "a fairy" at worse.

You have sympathy for Nance Roche despite her pedalling of "cures" and what she does to cure Michael. People are weary of her because of her connection to the "Good People" and for the crime of being unmarried - that doesn't stop them going to her when they need a cure or curse though. She's exactly the type of woman who would have been burnt as a witch in earlier times. Valuable when her cures seems to work but the devil when they don't.


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