I received a free copy of Orphan Train from TLC Book Tours for my honest review.
About the Book:
• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Original edition (April 2, 2013)
About the Author:
Christina Baker Kline is a novelist, nonfiction writer, and editor. In addition to Orphan Train, her novels include Bird in Hand, The Way Life Should Be, Desire Lines, and Sweet Water.
Kline also commissioned and edited two widely praised collections of original essays on the first year of parenthood and raising young children, Child of Mine and Room to Grow. She coauthored a book on feminist mothers and daughters, The Conversation Begins, with her mother, Christina L. Baker, and she coedited About Face: Women Write About What They See When They Look in the Mirror with Anne Burt.
My Opinion:
I continue to be amazed at the things I learn about the history of this country from reading books. Orphan Train is based in fact; from the mid 19th century through the first quarter of the 20th century there was no system for dealing with orphans or what we would consider foster children today. It was left to churches and charitable organizations. And for those who feel that they are best left to deal with these social issues, I suggest you research the orphan trains because their solution was to take the children into various cities and give them away to anyone who wanted a child. No background checks, no follow up, no nothing. These children were left with people in the hopes that they would be given a good life. Some were, many were nothing more than house slaves. I’ll get off the soapbox now.
The book juxtaposes two lives – that of young Molly, a foster child of the current generation who lives with a family that is divided as to her presence. The “father” is pleasant to her and sees the good in Molly but the “mother” would rather she be gone and in all truth is only doing the foster thing for the money it brings into the household. The second life is that of Vivian – born Niamh, who becomes Dorothy and ultimately Vivian as she is left alone in New York after her family is killed in a fire. She is taken in by Children’s Aid and sent West on an Orphan Train to hopefully find a new home. What she finds at first is mistreatment, suspicion and abuse.
While on the train she meets some other orphans one of whom will play an important role in her life. Most of the other characters, though fade into the background as the story focuses on Vivian and Molly and how the two of them reconcile their pasts which are not as different as they might think.
I sped through the first 2/3rds of this book totally enthralled with Vivian’s story. Molly’s life was really not as interesting or as fleshed out as Vivian’s and I suppose that since the book IS titled Orphan Train it should be focused on Vivian. Once the book hit the point in the story that moved it to the present it was as if all the rich detail that made the first part so compelling went out the window. There was an OMG moment in the book and then everything was rushed and it became, at least to me, a book of what could have been.
It was as if the author had only so many pages left and had to fit in more information than allotted space. I felt cheated somehow and very disappointed. The book could have been so much more and I feel the loss of what I know I’ve missed.
Rating:
3.5
Other books by Christina Baker Kline:
You can read my review of A Piece of the World
You can purchase A Piece of the World
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