Coburn, Andrew. Birthright
How would you feel after decades of thinking that you are someone else and discovering that you are the Lindbergh baby? This is the very dilemma David Shellenbach finds himself in when the man he called "father" on his death bed confesses on the eve of David's election as governor about David's kidnapping and the subsequent upbringing as the child of Helen and "Shel" Shellenbach.
Andrew Coburn weaves a very believable and a highly emotional story as he projects another layer of mystery on the tableau of the American myth of the Lindbergh's kidnapping. Whether or not the author convinces the reader that the events he writes about could have happened, Coburn still does a tremendous job painting the fictional Anne Morrow Lindbergh's pain as ever-present and palpable. The probable responses of the wounded David, his manipulating political jackal of a wife, Meredith, the possible injustice to Bruno Hauptmann, the tragedy of David's adoptive mother, and the dignified decisions of Shel resonate as poignantly real.
Coburn blends past, present, and supposition well as he tells his intriguing tale and describes the social and cultural power of "birthright." With this novel, Coburn illustrates how birthright shapes the conscious and the unconscious mind and may powerfully predict who we will one day become. And how easy it is to assume certain human characteristics are equal to opportunity in shaping one's future.
As the last footfall sounds in this book, there is a great expectation that both "birthright" and upbringing can come together at last.
Leane M. Ellis, March 4, 1998.
Lucius Beebe Memorial Library - This page last updated 3/05/98 - lme.