Family secrets [Mass Market Paperback]

I read this book during the past year. I found it to be much more revealing than their 1960s account of their lives, written with James Brough. In "We Were Five", the four remaining Quintuplets used the real names of their siblings, but neglected to come foreward with the charges of sexual abuse leveled at their father in this newer account.
The church officials who could have helped them turned their backs on them, telling them to "submit", and deciding that as long as their father gave monetary support to the Church, he was being a good Catholic. At a time when there was little if any separation of Church and State where the French Canadian government was concerned, there were many other children who experienced the same indignities. It is good that the Dionnes have spoken out on their behalf.
I'm glad that shortly after this account was published, that Yvonne, Annette, and Cecile were finally given $2.8 million dollars in compensation by the Ontario Government. But if there is any real justice, Ontario should be paying them annuity. After all, they didn't ask to become the saviors of Ontario during the Depression, and they only ended up as such by accident of being born Quintuplets and subsequent government manipulation.The Ontario Government made $500 million off of "Quintland" during the thirties. Caged and exploited for the first years of their lives, and tended to by Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe, they were eventually reunited with their parents and siblings after lengthy and strenuous custody battles. But while Oliva Dionne may have won the physical custody of his daughters, the loyalties of the three surviving sisters ultimately lie firmly with the Doctor who treated them with more dignity than their parents.
While it is well that these sisters, whose lives I have followed since I was a kid myself, have been compensated, I hope their siblings can make peace with them, although they shouldn't be entitled to their sisters' reward money after the way they treated them. Due to the times in which they were born, they aroused more public interest than they might have in a time of more affluence, and were led on a nightmarish odyssey that included experimentation, exploitation, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, failed marriages, and the early deaths of the two youngest Quintuplets, Emilie, and Marie in 1954 and 1970 respectively.
Their parents will have to answer for their sins in another lifetime, since they are both deceased. But when the three surviving Quintuplets sent a word of warning to the parents of the McCaughey Septuplets about not letting their children suffer the indignities that they did, my respect for them was renewed.
I wish these three remarkable ladies all the best in their remaining years. Their story, so far, as had as fair an outcome as could have been expected. As their mother once said to an American auidience years ago during a vaudeville act, "Dieu Beniesse".--God bless you, Yvonne, Annette, and Cecile.

This is the true story of the Dionne quintuplets and what their sad lives were really like. Removed from their family and raised according to "modern, scientific" standards, their physical needs were met but their emotional needs were cruelly neglected. Their parents fought the Canadian government for years to regain custody of the girls, until they became simply objects that their father needed to control for his own loss of ego. Finally re-united with their family, they become unpaid servants and no one in the family can relate to them, nor they to the family. Their father's need to control them and their money, and finally getting that control, is a classical set-up for him to sexually abuse them. No fatherly bond had developed. They made millions of dollars for the Canadian government and recieved very little of it in the end. this is an extremely sad and unusual story told by the main characters in it.

After seeing the CBS telepic about the Dionne Sisters, I read this book with much interest. "Family Secrets" is very different from the movie. In fact, it is the antithesis of the TV movie.

This book was published about 13 or 14 years ago in Canada and then reprinted in the US in English. It is supposedly the Dionne's "autobiography" however they've sold the rights to various journalists so it's hard to decipher which is the definitive book by them, since there appears to be a slew; all written around the same time-frame.

This book was interesting. It detailed their abusive childhood and how they were the victims of abuse by their parents. What I didn't like about the book was the sloppy way it was written. I suppose that happens with just about any low-budget book that's copied into a variety of second languages (including English.)

Currently, there's only 2 of the Dionne Sisters still alive. One of them passed away within the past few years. I hope they can find some happiness and peace.

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