Fiction | Book Chatter

Orphan Train
By Christina Baker Kline
William Morrow & Company, Paperback, 9780061950728, April 2013, 273pp.)

The Short of It:

Alternating between heartbreak and hope, Orphan Train is a story of resilience and survival.

The Rest of It:

Molly Ayer is a foster kid, trying to make do with the life she’s been dealt. At seventeen, she’s been bounced around from one family to another; none of them a home. Her current situation is no better. Willful and defiant, she often argues with her foster parents and when she steals a book from the library, she finds herself in a boatload of trouble. Her friend, Jack, finds her a community service opportunity helping an elderly lady clean out her attic. Molly’s not too excited about spending all those hours helping a perfect stranger. But as Molly gets to know Vivian and the history contained within those boxes, Molly begins to realize that they have more in common than she thought.

The story is told in alternating chapters and takes us from Vivian’s story in 1929, to Molly’s story which takes place in 2011. Vivian’s story is absolutely heartbreaking. Losing her family in a fire, Niamh (pronounced Neev) is placed aboard a train of orphans. The train stops in each town with the hopes of finding homes for the children aboard. Niamh, at ten years of age is already considered too old to adopt. If she finds a home at all she is guaranteed life of hard labor. Whether it be taking care of children or working her fingers to the bone doing mending or cleaning or whatever else comes to mind. She also quickly realizes that she won’t be able to retain the name given to her by her family. Her fierce red hair and Irish descent raises an eyebrow everywhere she goes so when a family steps up and offers her a place in their home as a seamstress, she quickly learns that she’ll be Dorothy. Something that she is forced to accept and a practice that is repeated until she settles on the permanent name of Vivian.

Vivian’s story is riveting, but as sad as it was to read about her poor living conditions as a child. I found myself gravitating towards her chapters more so than Molly’s. Molly is difficult to like. She assumes the role of troublemaker by dying her hair dark, wearing a nose ring and playing the all-around bad girl. Only those very close to her know that she’s not that way. Her friend Jack for one, and perhaps her guidance counselor, but her story did not pull me in as much as Vivian’s, so I didn’t feel as connected to Molly as I wanted to be.

However, when these two unlikely characters meet, Kline does a good job of weaving between the two stories and figures out how to make them come together in a satisfying way. My only quibble, is that the ending was a tad rushed and perhaps, too convenient.

Nevertheless, this is a riveting story and highly readable. I should mention that these trains actually existed. Yes, I know, it’s hard to believe but it’s true which of course makes the story even more interesting.

If you’d like a shot at winning the book, I have a copy to giveaway to one of my readers! Details below.

Christina Baker Kline

To visit her website, click here.

To visit her Facebook page, click here.

Follow @bakerkline to follow her on Twitter!

To visit her other tour stops, click here.

Source: Review and giveaway copy provided by the publisher via TLC Book Tours.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

GIVEAWAY INFORMATION

This giveaway is for one copy of Orphan Train and is open to the US and Canada. A winner will be chosen randomly by me. The book will come directly from the publisher. Only one entry per person. Giveaway closes on April 30, 2013 (pacific). I will contact the winner for his/her mailing address.

Click here to enter the giveaway.

In Between Days
By Andrew Porter
(Knopf, Hardcover, 9780307273512, September 2012, 336pp.)

The Short of It:

Nothing is easy when a man’s family falls apart.

The Rest of It:

I love dysfunction. Love it. I’d eat it up if it was on a plate in front of me. There is something fascinating about watching a family disintegrate before your eyes. Especially when you are doing it from the comfort of your home with happy “family” sounds in the background. The family portrayed in this book could be friends of mine, or the neighbors across the street. There is a realness to them that could not be ignored and that’s why I think I liked the book so much.

The story centers around the Harding family, Elson, a struggling architect, his ex-wife Cadence, his gay poet son Richard and his wayward daughter, Chloe. The fallout of their divorce is still lingering in the air, but both Elson and Cadence try their best to move on by starting relationships with other people. But it’s awkward for both of them. Cadence, having known nothing else but the role of mother and wife is now trying to understand who she is. And Elson, struggling both at work and at home, drowns his pain in drink. In the mean time, Richard doesn’t seem to be comfortable in his own skin and Chloe has been suspended from college for something that remains a mystery throughout most of the story.

As with most families, they come together in crisis and the crisis here is Chloe and her suspension from school. Ultimately, Elson is a good father. He loves his kids and realizes the mistakes he’s made, but his movements going forward are complicated by his current love interest and the fact that in the back of his mind, he still loves Cadence. There is a little piece of Cadence that still loves him too, but it’s buried beneath years of resentment and frankly, there’s little time to explore it because Chloe’s situation proves to be a lot more serious than they originally thought. So serious in fact that Chloe disappears.

The mystery surrounding Chloe and her disappearance is strung out through most of the novel. The reader is given clues along the way. Enough to keep you reading and Elson’s frustration and concern over the matter is palpable. Chloe frustrated the hell out of me. She comes across as an immature, privileged little college girl. She’s oblivious to the fact that her entire family is worried sick about her and yet she continues to make bad decisions. I realized at some point, that although Chloe’s situation seems to go on for most of the novel, it’s really not at all what the novel is about. What happens with Chloe is secondary to what happens to the family that is left behind. The collapse of a family is what this novel is about and Porter captures that well.

My one complaint is the setting. The story is set in Houston but that doesn’t come across at all in the telling. In fact, there are a couple of references that made me think the story was set in Los Angeles. The mention of one fast food restaurant and a very popular (quaint) neighborhood made me go back in the book to see if I had been mistaken about the setting. This was a bit of a letdown. Only because I so often look for a sense of place in a story and here, especially when it comes to Chloe’s disappearance, I didn’t get that.

Even with my little quibble above, I must say that I enjoyed this book quite a bit. The writing is genuine and effortless. It’s Porter’s first novel but I’ll be on the lookout for future books.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Chatting with friends about books and life…