20 March 2016

Review #373: Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Well, finally, once you become an orphan, you're an orphan till the day you die. I keep having the same dream. I'm seven years old and an orphan again. All alone, with no adults around to take care of me. It's evening, and the light is fading, and night is pressing in. It's always the same. In the dream I always go back to being seven years old.”

----Haruki Murakami



Christina Baker Kline, an English best-selling author, has penned a tear-jerking as well as thoroughly enlightening tale about an unusual friendship between a 91-year-old woman and a 17-year-old high school teenage girl, in her award-winning book, Orphan Train . This book narrates not only the unusual friendship bonded over a shared experience of orphan-hood but also unfolds the unexplored parts in the American history.




Synopsis:

The author of Bird in Hand and The Way Life Should Be delivers her most ambitious and powerful novel to date: a captivating story of two very different women who build an unexpected friendship: a 91-year-old woman with a hidden past as an orphan-train rider and the teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to questions no one has ever thought to ask.

Nearly eighteen, Molly Ayer knows she has one last chance. Just months from "aging out" of the child welfare system, and close to being kicked out of her foster home, a community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping her out of juvie and worse.

Vivian Daly has lived a quiet life on the coast of Maine. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past. As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly discovers that she and Vivian aren't as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.

The closer Molly grows to Vivian, the more she discovers parallels to her own life. A Penobscot Indian, she, too, is an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past. As her emotional barriers begin to crumble, Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life - answers that will ultimately free them both.



Molly, the high school teenager who likes to dress up as a Goth, is caught in a petty theft and is forced to serve for the community by helping out an old lady's attic. Vivian is a 91-year-old lady who lives in a lavish mansion with an unshared past of pain, loss and happiness. Both these women share the same pattern of grief, orphan-hood and the shared memories of living in more than one foster home. Vivian, born as Niamh, narrates her story beginning from the time when she traveled to New York City with her parents from Ireland and then when her family hit the downward spiral, she was given up to the social workers who then carried her along with many more destitute and orphan children to the West towards the farmlands on a train called Orphan Train, where these children, if lucky, will be picked by some foster parents who will then take care of these children. Whereas Molly too opens up to Vivian after hearing her story and vows to make Vivian's life better in every way possible by giving her the peace that she is lacking for so many years.

In one word, this mind-blowing as well as splendid story simply transported me to an unexplored era in the American history to the places which are hidden behind the proud big cities. The book is set mainly in Minnesota where Vivian is kicked from one foster home to another and at last ends up near the coast of Maine. The locations are evocatively described and the changes in those places are spot on with respect to its socio-economical changes. The journey from the green fields to the city is vividly captured through Vivian's eyes.

The writing is way too brilliant as the tone is layered with deep, heart-felt emotions, that arrested me into the core of the story right from the very beginning. The narrative is articulate and free-flowing as the chapters sway from one narration to another and the timeline shifts from the modern day (2011) to the past in the 1920s. And not even for once I felt confused with either the shifting narration or with the timeline change. Vivian's story is extremely engrossing to read about and not for once I could look away from it. The pacing is really fast, given the fact that the author has painted each and every scene with vividness and great detailing that let me see the story unfold right in front of my eyes.

The author has tread down a less traveled path in the history and also she has sensitively captured the foster home situations of Vivian in the book. The author strikingly pens Vivian's story whose misfortune lands her up on a family who ill-treated her and put her on child labor with no food or prospect of proper education, how she was subjected to abuse and how she learned to keep her mouth shut and digesting the pain silently. On the other hand, the author gives not so much depth to Molly's story yet her story unfolds almost in the same pattern like Vivian's.

The characters are born out of realism and extremely well-developed. Vivian's demeanor is sympathetic and sad owing to all the grief that she suffered in her life. But I really loved how Vivian tried to evolve Molly from her anger into a caring and understanding human. Molly's anger is mainly due to injustice suffered through her orphaned childhood and her ignorance towards her constantly changing foster parents. Molly's character grows through a lot of changes as in the beginning I could not comprehend with her actions but in the end she became my favorite character who helped Vivian to reunite with her past. The supporting characters are also quite well-crafted.

Overall, Orphan Train experience for me was moving and heart rending as well as completely uplifting. Even though it was fiction, I had a hard time in believing that this is not a real story instead inspired from reality. This book is definitely a must read for all as the author knots an unlikely string of friendship through orphan-hood, history and grief.

Verdict: There are some books which enlightens the reader's mind with a life-changing experience, and I guess this book pretty much falls into that category.

Courtesy: Received as a Birthday present from my best friend, which was almost 6 months ago! 
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Author Info:
Christina Baker Kline, the author of five novels, grew up in Maine, England, and the American South. She is married to a Midwesterner whose family history inspired her new novel, Orphan Train (April). Set in present-day Maine and Depression-era Minnesota, Orphan Train highlights the real-life story of the trains that between 1854 and 1929 carried more than 200,000 abandoned children from the East Coast to the Midwest. Kline imagines the journey of one such child, Vivian Daly, an Irish immigrant whose fate is determined by luck and chance. Orphan Train is the story of an unlikely friendship between 91-year-old Vivian Daly, whose experiences are far behind her, and Molly Ayer, a 17-year-old Penobscot Indian girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to questions no one has ever asked. 
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