I wish I could give this one 3.5 stars. I read it in one big gulp and was fascinated in particular by the first half of the book. Grunwald wrote this novel after finding out that home economics departments at several universities in the mid twentieth century used orphans as "practice babies" for their students. The baby would live on campus with rotating "mothers" for a year, after which he or she would be placed for adoption.

The first part of this book focuses on Henry, a practice baby, and Martha, the director of the program. Martha, despite her best judgment, falls in love with the baby and ends up keeping him rather than returning him to the orphanage. This relationship -- between a child who has attachment issues and a woman who is desperate for attachment -- is fascinating.

I grew less enamored with the book as Henry reaches adulthood. The plot takes us through his career as an animator and through the culture of the 1960s. All the while, we see that Henry still has difficulty connecting to other people. I wish that Grunwald would have continued to focus on the relationship between the two main characters rather than on Henry alone.