"Sunlight Finds You" | Reviewed by Pat Sainz

“Sunlight Finds You” is a historical fiction novel that explores the ramifications of teen pregnancy in the late 1940s. Being a pregnant teen back then meant shame, isolation and scandal that affected not only the pregnant girl, but the entire family. Families went to great lengths to hide pregnancies for which the young women ultimately suffered.

            “Sunlight Finds You” also is a love story broken into three parts. In the first, Eleanor meets Leonard in her new high school in Florida. She has few friends; he is studious and a loner. They are immediately attracted to each other.  Eleanor is middle class, at best. Leonard is the only child of one of St. Petersburg's wealthiest families. 

            As Eleanor and Leonard become inseparable, Leonard’s family forbids him to see her. In an act of defiance, Leonard, a high school senior, leaves the city instead of going to Harvard, as was expected of him.

            In Part Two, Leonard reaches out to Eleanor for a secret assignation, and the inevitable happens. Unable to reach Leonard, Eleanor confides in her stepmother about her pregnancy.  As was commonplace for the times, Eleanor is sent away to have her baby. Her siblings and friends are told that she is helping her ill grandmother. 

            The home for unwed mothers is a cold and gruesome place. It’s a reflection of the times when pregnant girls were treated with disdain, even by the caretakers. Never were girls given a chance to keep their babies; they were taken from them soon after birth.

            In Part Three, Eleanor returns to Florida and graduates with her class. No one is fooled, and she is shunned. A former classmate convinces her to marry him because she is “damaged goods.”    

            Eleanor believes her new husband’s cruel allegation that he is her only chance at financial security, important to a woman in the early 1950s.  She tolerates her marriage, convinced that happiness will elude her forever. Eleanor often thinks about the adopted daughter she was forced to give up and the undeniable love of her life.

            “Sunlight Finds You” made me remember the girls who became pregnant when I was in high school. It's unsettling to think now about the shame and disparagement they faced. 

            Research shows that today 90% of teens keep their children. However, teen pregnancies are historically low because of access to birth control or abortion.  

            Laura Moriarty is the author of five novels.  One of them, “The Chaperone," is a historical fiction novel about Louise Brooks, a silent film star. It was made into a movie by the creator of “Downtown Abby.”

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