The Degenerates – J. Albert Mann

Yn nhraddodiad Girl, Interrupted, mae’r nofel hanesyddol hon yn dilyn pedair merch ifanc ar ddechrau’r 20fed ganrif y mae eu bywydau’n croestorri pan gânt eu cloi gan fyd a gymerodd y tlawd, yr anabl, yr ymylol – a’u rhoi mewn sefydliad am oes.

Nid yw’s ‘Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded’ yn lle hapus. Yn sicr nid i’r merched ifanc sydd yno. Nid Maxine, sy’n gwneud popeth o fewn ei gallu i amddiffyn ei chwaer iau Rose mewn sefydliad lle mae’r cynorthwywyr a merched hŷn yn eu trin fel y twpsod y mae’r meddygon wedi barnu eu bod. Nid Alice, ychwaith, a adawyd yno pan na allai ei brawd ddod ag ef ei hun i gefnogi chwaer gyda throed clwb. Ac nid London, sydd newydd gael ei llusgo yno o’r sefyllfa faethu orau a gafodd erioed, diolch i un foment annisgwyl a newidiodd ei bywyd. Mae pob merch yn benderfynol o newid ei thynged, beth bynnag y mae’n ei gymryd.

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.