Bookish Thoughts: Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
William Morrow, 2013
Fiction; 304 pgs

The perfect books seem to be finding me at just the right moment this summer, as difficult as the past few months have been. Christina Baker Kline's Orphan Train brought tears of sadness and of joy to my eyes.  I came to love both Molly and Vivian, wishing I could reach into the pages and hug them over and over again.

Molly Ayer has grown up in foster care, having lost her father at a young age and being neglected by her mother.  Molly, a Penobscot Indian, survives as best she can, not letting anyone get to close to her.  She's been bounced from home to home and labeled a delinquent most of her life even despite the circumstances being out of her control.

After a run in with the law, Molly is required to do community service or face juvenile hall.  She agrees to do her service hours in the home of an elderly woman.  Vivian Daly has Molly helping her sort through her possessions in the attic, and, bit by bit, the reader--and Molly--learn Vivian's history.  She and Molly are not so different from one another after all.

Vivian, born Niamh, came to New York from Ireland as a young girl.  Orphaned at the age of 9, she is put on a train along with hundreds of other children and sent to the Midwest to find new homes and families.  Niamh's first two families used her for labor, not treating her very well. Her story is one that made me both angry and sad--she was just a child and deserved a better life than the one she received.

While much of the story is Vivian's, of her childhood and life as an orphan, Molly's own story framed it well.  The two women faced similar struggles growing up, including their struggle to find and maintain their own identities, cultural and otherwise.  I liked the juxtaposition of the two stories, the past and the present and the way they came together.

I knew nothing about orphan trains before first hearing about this book several months ago.  From about 1853 to the early 1900's, homeless and orphaned children were sent by train from the East Coast of America to the Midwest, placed with any family willing to take them.  Some children were adopted while others were taken in to perform labor--some both.  It was heartbreaking reading Vivian's story, about how a child of only 9 was seen as a source of labor rather than the young girl she was.  She wasn't offered the love and safety she most needed.  And through no fault of her own.

I can't help but think of Molly too, moving from foster home to foster home, never finding the love and stability she most needed.  I admit Vivian's story touched me more so than Molly's.  Perhaps in part because Vivian's story took up the majority of the book. It would be easy to say Molly's experience wasn't nearly as bad as Vivian's had been, and in some ways that might be true.  But in others, not so much.  I don't think it's really fair to compare in that way as each of us have a unique story all our own and our trials and experiences affect us in varying ways.  Still, there were moments I wished Molly had held her tongue, knowing it would make things easier for her.  Easy to say from my perspective.  Not so easy from hers. Ultimately, I saw a bit of myself in Molly--or rather, a bit of my teen self in Molly--and so I understood where she was coming from even if we had entirely lives.

Both women are extremely resilient.  Whether a natural tendency or forced to be through circumstance.  I admired their strength and wanted so much for them to find their happy ending.  The two women, who, on the outside, couldn't be more different, were just what the other one needed.  They learned from each other, and grew as a result.

Christina Baker Kline did a wonderful job of bringing her characters to life for me, as well as making me feel and care for them.  I liked the way the author connected all the pieces of the story together. I did not want the novel to end.  I would like to have spent more time with Vivian, listening to her stories. And I really would have liked to know more about Molly's future, what happens to her down the road.  Still, I think the novel ended in a good place.  Yet another novel that left me with a big smile on my face.


Rating:  (Very Good +)

To learn more about Christina Baker Kline and her books, please visit the author's website. You can also learn more about the author by visiting his Facebook page, and Twitter account.

I hope you will check out what others had to say about Orphan Train on the TLC Book Tours route!

Many thanks to the TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to be a part of this book tour. The publisher provided a print copy of the book to read; however, I purchased an e-copy after the fact because it was more convenient for me to read it that way.

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