The Irresistible Henry House

by Lisa Grunwald

Book Overview

In mid-20th-century America, a home economics program at a prominent university uses real babies to teach mothering skills. For a young man raised in these unlikely circumstances, finding real love... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812973224
• ISBN13: 9780812973228
• Release Date: August 2011
• Publisher: Random House Trade
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Very interesting

After reading a few chapters, I had to go online and see if "practice babies" were real or just a figment of the authors imagination. OMG! I can't believe something like that ever happened for real!!! While most of the book is of course fiction, the character development and story line are very interesting. I enjoyed the book!

Awesome

This book reeled me in on the get go. I find it fascinating that they would use live babies to train girls instead of the "babies" we know of today. I love where Henry ends up working later in life, Mostly, I just found this book very engrossing.

Difficult to put down

It's difficult to review this book without giving away what ultimately happens to Henry House, a 'practice baby' borrowed from an orphanage in order to train young college women how to be mothers; however, I will not include any spoilers in this review. First, I did not find it easy to put this book down, because the author has created a character and a story that left me with a craving to know what happens next. As hard as it may be to believe, the use of practice babies was a very real phenomenon in the U.S. from the 1920's to the 1960's. As stated in the author's notes at the end of the book, at the time it was generally believed to be beneficial both to the mother trainees and the baby. However, it will probably not come as a surprise to modern readers that these experiments may not have been entirely successful. The story follows the life of one such baby whom the program director ultimately cannot bear to send back to the orphanage. From the mid 1940's to the late 1960's, the author seamlessly transitions through the phases of Henry House's life, including references to many historical and iconic elements of each era. This book is the author's answer to the question of what might have happened to these practice babies. To me, the book also explored the question "what is a mother"? Beautifully written, great characters, thoughtful analysis, and a plot that keeps you riveted. I can't think of anything this book is missing.

PRACTICE BABIES? PRACTICE BABIES? YES, PRACTICE BABIES!!!

THE IRRESISTIBLE HENRY HOUSE We are introduced to one adorable little baby boy, namely Henry House, an orphan who is lucky enough to be selected to become one of many practice babies to live in a practice house at Wilton College. What does this mean for sweet and innocent little Henry? The situation is this -- for approximately two years, Henry will live at the practice house and have a bevy of young women students be his mommy. These young home ec girls will learn how to be mothers -- using Henry as their tool in learning. Henry -- and the babies before and after him -- will not have any one mother, but many, many mothers. He starts out at an early age winning the hearts of the ladies. The one heart he warms and wins over though is one Martha Gaines, the woman in charge of this home ec project. Martha normally is more hard-hearted, but there is something about Henry that wins her over and she happy to keep Henry on to live with her. While at best Henry and Martha's relationship can only be described as full of turmoil, Martha dotes on Henry to a point of being obsessive and desperate to win his love. Henry, meanwhile, having had so many mothers, has a real problem forming attachments to any one person and is not one to love or trust. For Henry, this is a real problem and will stay with him the remainder of his life. We follow Henry's life through his baby years, school years, seeking employment, and always seemingly to be on the run and trying to find someone he can love and trust with his entire being. He tries to locate his birth mother and tries to distance himself from Martha. Martha is unrelenting in her pursuit of keeping Henry near and dear to her which makes Henry want to keep further away from her. Henry is a talented artist and lands a job with the Disney studios. He never seems happy however and his life always seems lacking. He dates and discards numerous women in his pursuit of happiness. Enjoy Henry's journey through his life trying to find joy, stability, and someone to love, all the while meeting many realistic and graphic characters. Does Henry find his birth mother? If he does, do they bond and become a happy family of sorts? Does any one woman make Henry feel whole? Read this book and find out! What is amazing is that practice houses and practice babies really did exist at Cornell to name one such place. These practice baby programs originated in 1919 and lasted until the l960's. What effect did these programs have on the practice babies? Did these babies ever realize what the first few years of their being entailed? Did these programs have an ever-lasting effect on the lives of these children? Eventually these babies were returned to the supplying orphanage and hopefully were adopted into loving homes -- homes that possibly could erase any damage that had been done by not really being able to bond and be loved by any one person. As Henry searches for answers in his life he meets Walt Disney, T

Too many mothers but not a one

In 1946, America is in-between eras. With one foot in the detritus of WWII and the other nudging the Cold War, it is also an uncertain time for women who want a higher education. Soldiers return to procreate with their waiting wives, giving rise to the Baby Boomer generation. Motherhood is a hot topic, with Benjamin Spock garnering headlines for his pioneer theories of child rearing. He advocates a very tactile approach, which includes picking up the infant every time (s)he cries. This is diametrically opposed to the former approach of instilling a strict schedule and forcing the baby to conform to it, letting the baby cry until it is "time" to pick her or him up. In this supremely inventive and provocative novel, Grunwald creates a protagonist, Henry House, an in-between baby born with one foot in the strict schedule and the other in Dr. Spock, an orphan who is raised by not one mother but many "practice mothers" and one woman who pleads for his love. Adored by many but unable to love any ONE. Henry is the tenth orphan sent to the Wilton College of Home Economics, where female students practice mothering skills in two-year rotations, taught by the firm and stern director, Martha Gaines. Every two years, a new orphan is sent as a "practice baby" for a half-dozen female students. Not only do they practice mothering, but they also learn to fix kitchen equipment, remove stains, balance a budget, and manage a household. Ironically, the program is a subversive defender of women with ambition. They learn chemistry, physics, economics, and engineering, among other challenging subjects. When the rotation is over, the babies are sent back to the orphanage and are hopefully adopted by a loving family. The women graduate and move on to their futures. When Martha falls in love with Henry at first sight, she is emotionally transformed. She relaxes her rigid routine and secretly champions Dr. Spock's touchy-feely approach. And, in a surprising twist of fate, Henry becomes the first and only baby to stay and be raised at the practice house, with Martha as the primary caregiver and a succession of women vying for his love and attention. Conversely, Henry thrives on their adoration, and learns guile and charm early in his life, endearing himself to his many "mothers." He doesn't attach himself to the ultra-needy Martha, or any specific caregiver or peer. He learns to manipulate and gain power by extracting differentially from each "mother" and later uses similar techniques with children his age. However, at nursery school he meets Mary Ann, a beautiful little girl that becomes a constant, although interrupted, presence in his life. If you have been schooled in attachment theory, you know that the first few years of a baby's life are critical. That is the time when a baby needs to develop a primary relationship. If this is disrupted, like in the case of the Wilton practice baby method, the baby may form maladaptive behaviors and fail to deve