Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

278 pages - Trade Paperback - Historical Fiction - 2013

I was invited to join a book club and the person who started it picked this book as the first read. The story setting is set close to where I grew up in MN. I have also had an interest in the Depression era of the United States and seeing how people handled it.

The book has two timelines. The first part is set in Maine in modern times. We meet a young lady, Molly, who is in a foster program. Her foster father wants to be a family, but the mother is rude and unwilling to compromise. Molly is caught stealing a book from the local library and sentenced to community service. She finds herself helping Vivian. An older lady that needs help cleaning out her attic. As the work together "cleaning" the attic, they come upon all the items Vivian has collected through the years.

The second part of the story follows is set in the depression era. Naimh, has come over from ireland only 2 years ago. Both parents die and she and her brother, Carmine, are sent on the Orphan Train across the US. They travel with her friend, Dutchy. What happened on the Orphan Trains was they took children in New York and put them on trains that would stop at places in the midwest. Any family willing to take them in was encouraged to do so. Naimh is split from her brother and Dutchy, but they swear they will find each other in the future.

It becomes apparent that Vivian and Naimh are the same person and that she has changed her name. We follow her through many trials. It seems almost as if she goes from one bad things to another with only a glimmer of hope once and awhile. The book pulls itself together in the end with Molly helping Vivian deal with her past.

This book was interesting to me. There were parts of it I liked a lot. Specifically, the story of Vivian as a young lady and how things start out with her after being on the Orphan Train. But as the story went on I got a bit annoyed with the book. It seemed to me like it wasn't real. As if Kline made a list of all the terrible things that could happen to a young woman and then wrote it into the story. After reading the book I read an interview with Kline. She interviewed many people that actually did ride the Orphan Trains and reveals that she took parts of the people's stories and used them to tell Vivian's story. It wasn't that someone couldn't have had all those things happen to her, but it seemed very contrived. It was like to much was happening to one person.

3 Emotional/Intellectual - I really got into Vivian's story as a youth. I understood the point of having Molly be a character that leads Vivian into the future, but her part of the story mostly pointless to me and could have been handled in a different way.

2 Style/Readability - As mentioned, the story seemed way too contrived. I can't place my finger on it, but it just didn't seem real to me. I realize it is fiction, but it is historically accurate so I wanted something more.

2 Long Term Impact - It is a bestseller and it has positively drawn attention to folks who really did ride the trains. I would like to believe that some of their real stories would be more worthwhile.

7 out of 13. This isn't a great score. The thing is I liked the book and enjoyed reading it. I don't have another book that deals with the same subject, but I would like to believe there is something better. Personally, I wouldn't recommend it unless a person had connections to it, as in my case, where the setting was in my home state.

Keep Turning Pages.

A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul

278 Pages Paperback - Fiction - 1980

My wife and I both wanted to read a book together and this was chosen. I had never heard of the author or the book, but was interested in reading it. It is occasionally on the "top 100 books to read" lists. I have grown to appreciate a lot of the Indian writers I have had read. I was pleased to be starting another.

The book follows a man named Salim. He is of indian heritage, but lives on the coast of Africa. It is never revealed where he actually is in the books other than some place in Africa, though he does travel to other countries/continents for part of the story.

Salim starts the story by buying a business in a small town at "a bend in the river" in another country. He travels through the middle of Africa and finds himself in a sparsely populated town with a run down building and a hodgepodge of things to sell. He establishes himself and does moderately well. He takes on a customers boy as a boarder so that he can attend the local school. Eventually, Metty, a house slave, now free, from his home comes to join him. He works at the shop as well. 

The conflict within the story seems to be the small town vs the outside world. At first it is just this collection of buildings in the middle of the bush. At one point it had been modernized, but everything has fallen to ruin and no one takes care of anything they don't live in. Huge piles of garbage pile int eh streets. There is a rebellion and it is squashed by mercenaries. Soon "The Big Man", the president takes notice of the small town as it has become a place of local trade. The bend in the river gets an update with a section of town known as the "State Domain". It seems to be a way to show how Modern the state can be, even turning small downs into a great modern place to be.

I think that Naipaul writing is clear and precise. It was easy to imagine the places and I can see myself in this hot place in the middle of nowhere. Though the main protagonist is likable he never really does anything exciting. The book seems to be a portrait of middle Africa at the time. It's like the backdrop of his life, the town, the people, and the country is what the book is really about. As it went on it felt almost like a social/political commentary on Africa at the time. The fact that none of the major places in the book are named implies that you could be most anywhere in Africa and this would hold true. I personally don't know enough about it to fully understand all the implications of the comparisons to real life. But at the same time the characters are very real. They have worries, and love and hope and sorrow and that all is delivered with solid writing.

3 Emotional/Intellectual - I liked the characters in the book. It did jump around in focus and certain characters such as Ferdinand's Mother and The Priest were not in the book enough.

3 Style/readability - I thing Naipaul is a very good writer. If I was more aware regarding the political aspects of the book, I would probably be even more impressed.

3 Long Term Impact - The book is still break top 100 lists over 30 years later. It already has had major impact. 

I give it a 9 out of 13. I can't say I am disappointed in the book, but I can say I overly liked it. I can appreciate the writing, but it just didn't do it for me. If you are looking for other Indian writers try Rushdie or Arundhati Roy.