Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

For a long time, I’ve had Orphan Train recommended (actually thrust upon me) by fellow readers, various bookstore customers, and, yes, even my Mom ~~ all opinions I value…but for some reason I never got around to reading it.

After my last two magical-mystical-tour reads, I was ready for some reality. I unearthed my long ignored copy of this popular novel and dove right in.

In case you’re one of the few (like me) who haven’t read this historical novel, I’ll give it a proper Book Barmy review.

It’s 2011 Maine and 17-year old Molly, a Penobscot Indian, has been sent from one foster home to another, from school to school, and has been in and out of trouble. Her most recent crime? Stealing a beat up paperback copy of Jane Eyre from the library.

(Sigh, Jane Eyre really? I’m already on her side, mentally figuring out the cost of a multiple times read mass market paperback to an entire library system, versus the cost of juvie –)

Molly is facing juvenile detention, when her boyfriend, Jack, offers up a solution. His mother, Terry, is a housekeeper for a 91-year old woman, who wants to clear out an attic of memorabilia. Jack suggests Molly do community service hours by helping Vivian clean the attic.

Together they form a prickly friendship and as they go through the boxes and mementos, the book switches narratives to 1929, when Vivian was nine-year old Niamh Power.

Her family emigrated from Ireland to the tenements of New York. Her father was a drunk and her mother depressed (although she taught Niamh excellent sewing skills). With both parents incapable, Niamh takes care of her siblings, especially her baby sister, Maise.

Then a horrible fire leaves Niamh an orphan, and she is herded onto an orphan train. These trains were arranged to take orphans from areas such as the New York tenements and give them to anyone who wanted a child. These children were left with people in the hopes that they would be given a good life. Some were, but many were nothing more than indentured slaves on remote and hardscrabble farms.

The author has created an unforgettable character in Niamh, who brings this little known part of our history alive. As an old woman, she helps the young Molly see that she is not the only orphan to suffer:

“I learned long ago that loss is not only probable but inevitable. I know what it means to lose everything, to let go of one life and find another. And now I feel, with a strange, deep certainty, that it must be my lot in life to be taught that lesson over and over again.”

Ms. Baker Kline did an extraordinary amount of research, and as a result, the story comes alive with rich details and colorful descriptions. I knew nothing about this part of history — orphan trains — and it’s as interesting and heartbreaking as it gets.

Orphan Train is a powerful read, both historically and emotionally.

I now join the legions who highly recommend this book.

Now I’m a bit miffed at myself for waiting so long…