Review: 'Girls and Their Monsters: The Genain Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America' by Audrey Claire Farley

I had to take a break about a third into Farley's Girls and Their Monsters. The atmosphere of the novel, the pain and sadness Farley was uncovering, it all became a little too much. Or perhaps it got a little too close to home, because they way Farley unravels how society played a role in the mental health and lives of the Genain quadruplets was painful to witness. But I got back to it quickly, because Farley has once again written a fascinating non-fiction deep-dive that is at once utterly human and chockful of relevant information and insight. Thanks to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 6/13/2023
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

In 1954, researchers at the newly formed National Institute of Mental Health set out to study the genetics of schizophrenia. When they got word that four 24-year-old identical quadruplets in Lansing, Michigan, had all been diagnosed with the mental illness, they could hardly believe their ears. Here was incontrovertible proof of hereditary transmission and, thus, a chance to bring international fame to their fledgling institution.
 
The case of the pseudonymous Genain quadruplets, they soon found, was hardly so straightforward. Contrary to fawning media portrayals of a picture-perfect Christian family, the sisters had endured the stuff of nightmares. Behind closed doors, their parents had taken shocking measures to preserve their innocence while sowing fears of sex and the outside world. In public, the quadruplets were treated as communal property, as townsfolk and members of the press had long ago projected their own paranoid fantasies about the rapidly diversifying American landscape onto the fair-skinned, ribbon-wearing quartet who danced and sang about Christopher Columbus. Even as the sisters’ erratic behaviors became impossible to ignore and the NIMH whisked the women off for study, their sterling image did not falter.

Girls and Their Monsters chronicles the extraordinary lives of the quadruplets and the lead psychologist who studied them, asking questions that speak directly to our times: How do delusions come to take root, both in individuals and in nations? Why does society profess to be “saving the children” when it readily exploits them? What are the authoritarian ends of innocence myths? And how do people, particularly those with serious mental illness, go on after enduring the unspeakable? Can the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood help the deeply wounded heal? 

I was astounded by Audrey Clare Farley's The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt when I read it in 2021. The way she was able to both guide the reader through Ann Cooper Hewitt's tragic life and through all the social issues that affected it felt like a masterclass on how to write accessible and thorough non-fiction. So when I saw that she had another book coming out, I of course wanted to read it. I had no idea how Girls and Their Monsters would affect me, however. As I wrote above, I had to take a little break from it at some point. I was kind of losing grip on my anxiety and realised that the book was becoming a little too real for me. The way Farley traces how society played a significant role, alongside genetics, in the mental decline of the four Genain sisters, made me realise how my own surroundings were also affecting me. Once I got a grip on myself again, I returned to the book with a new appreciation and was once again amazed at what Farley accomplished. She traces the role of eugenics in 20th-century America, how religion, gendered and racial stereotypes all played a part. While these are things one knows theoretically, it is a whole new thing to see it laid out the way it is in this Girls and Their Monsters. We are shaped by our society in a way we often do not even recognise. Another aspect which Farley traces in the mental health industry, and how it moved from looking for causes in family surroundings, usually the mother, to looking for genetic causes only. While there are still no definite answers on what, exactly, causes illnesses like schizophrenia, Farley lays out a convincing case for how both nature and nurture play their role.

Girls and Their Monsters tells the story of the Genain quadruplets, Edna, Sarah, Wilma, and Helen. Born in the mid 1920s, they were a sensation from birth and became something of celebrities in their home town. Growing up, they belonged to the town as much as to their parents and they were constantly looked at and presented. At home, they were also considered a unit, rather than four separate girls, by their mother and their access to the outside world was severely curtailed by their strict father. The book starts in 1954 when scientists from the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) visit them, with the hope to be able to study them. All four girls have, in one way or another, been diagnosed with schizophrenia, even if their parents and town still project the idea of them as four good, clean girls. From this point, Girls and Their Monsters investigates the girls' childhoods, their parents' history, the lives of the scientisits involved with their case, and the rising awareness and stigmatisation of mental health in America during the last 100-odd years. It is an incredibly comprehensive book, which touches on the widespread obsession with eugenics in 20th century America, the role of the Christian Right in the stigmatisation of mental health and schooling, the role of race is mental health diagnosis, and more. At the heart of Girls and Their Monsters, however, are always the four sisters and their struggles towards individual, fully realized lives.

As with The Unfit Heiress, I am amazed at the amount of information Farley is able to compile and make orderly and understandable, without loosing focus of the humans at the heart of Girls and Their Monsters. All four sisters come through strongly as individuals, something which was denied them for so long. Farley clearly has a lot of sympathy and understanding for them, and extends this, as far as she can, to those around them who may have contributed to their mental decline. In laying out the various social influences to which the sisters were exposed, Farley creates a comprehensive portrait of how mental health balances on the fragile line between nature and nurture. While the Genain sisters are at the core of the book, Farley also dedicates a significant amount of time to the primary psychologist who brought them to NIMH, Dr. Rosenwein, and through him explores the developments in psychology and psychotherapy. Another element she draws out is the racialised aspect of mental health, in part through the story of Louise Little. Like the Genain sisters, she lives in Lansing, Michigan. The Little family suffered through racial violence and after a nervous breakdown, Louise was confined to a mental health hospital for almost three decades. Her son was Malcolm X. Her story is in stark contrast to that of the Genain sisters and her inclusion in this book enables Farley to expand it beyond a tragic story and into an indictment of society. It is hard to encapsulate either the book or Farley's skill at writing it, so all I can do is wholeheartedly recommend it. It is necessary reading, in my opinion.

I give this book...

5 Universes!

Girls and Their Monsters blew me away almost from the beginning. Farley has a captivating and personal writing style which flows seamlessly between human insight and social critique. Farley has become an instant-buy for me with this book and I can't wait to see what else she writes.