Linnea Peldo's Book Blog Period 2

Orphan Train 
by Christina Baker Kline

Rating:
5 stars! ☆☆☆☆☆

This novel was well deserving of a 5/5 star rating, as it told a moving story of two women, both casualties of strings of foster homes, who each struggle to transcend a past forged by isolation and hardship. This book refused to be put down until the last word was read, and was definitely a heart-wrenching page turner.


Setting: 
This setting of this novel moves between contemporary Main and Depression-era Minnesota. Christina artfully alternates between telling the life story of Vivian Daly, who as a young Irish immigrant was sent by rail from New York City to an uncertain future, and Molly Ayer, a seventeen-year-old whose troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers for her past. The chapters switch smoothly from olden day Midwestern America with orphaned young Vivian to the year 2011 on the peaceful coasts of Main, where the unlikely pair begin a friendship together. 

Main Characters & Events:

• Molly Ayer has been in the foster care system since she was 9 years old. Her loving father was killed in a car accident soon after her eighth birthday, and her mother, overcome with grief for her late husband, began a downward spiral of drugs and alcohol. Because of her remaining parent's lack of care, Molly was then placed into foster care. After 12 foster homes, Molly is finally placed with Ralph and Dina. She trusts no one, has no friends, and takes on a Goth look for protection. However, after stealing Jane Eyre from the community library Molly is given a punishment of 50 hours of community service, where she meets Vivian Daly.
• Vivian Daly's story begins in New York City in 1929, where she has emigrated from Ireland with her family in search of a better life. On one fateful night, the tenant apartment that the family is staying in catches fire, and in a sick twist of fate, Vivian, whose birth name is Niamh Power, is left the sole survivor of a family of six. Niamh is then given to the Children's Aid Society by the German couple who had previously lived across the hall from the Power family. A few weeks later Niamh, along with other children, are Minnesota-bound on the Orphan Train in search of new homes. On the train, Niamh is given the task to care for a toddler named Carmine, who helps her get to know Dutchy, a teenage boy taken off the streets in order to start a new life. When the train finally reaches Minnesota and the children are chosen by couples in need of children to call their own, Dutchy and Niamh make a pact to find each other in the future. Niamh lives through three foster homes, the first, where she works as a seamstress named Dorothy until the stock market crash of 1929, and the Byrne family can no longer afford to house her. In the second foster home, Niamh lives in squalor, and is almost raped. Love is finally shown to her in her last foster home, where she is given the name Vivian. This last family is where she grows up safely and meets her first husband, who ends up to be her long lost friend from the Orphan Train, Dutchy.   

Although the novel follows the lives of Vivian and Molly in vivid detail, Orphan Train contains snippets of the lives of other characters, as well. 

• Ralph and Dina: Molly's current foster parents. Dina detests Molly, and the feeling is entirely mutual, but Ralph and Molly form a shaky form of friendship.
• Jack: Molly's boyfriend, and her first true friend. Jack sees through the facade that Molly puts up to hide her true self, and Molly respects him for his insight. Jack is also responsible for organizing Molly's community service project at Vivian's home, which begins the pair's acquaintance.
• Dutchy: Vivian's friend on the Orphan Train, and her late husband.
• Byrne family: Vivian's first foster parents, who name her Dorothy.
• Grote family: Vivian's second foster home, one in which she is almost raped. 
• Nielsen family: Vivian's third and final foster parents, by whom she is loved and later adopted, and is given the name "Vivian" after their beloved daughter.

Conflict:

The main conflict of this novel was more a battle of emotions, rather than an actual skirmish. Both Molly and Vivian endeavor to make sense of their turbulent pasts, and strive to overcome feelings of abandonment and isolation. These battles of wills and emotions give a name to the many internal conflicts that both women are continually faced with throughout the narrative. 

Recommendation: 

I would definitely recommend this amazing novel to anyone who enjoys a one sitting read. Once started, this story is impossible to put down! As it follows a true course of history, this novel has multiple educational bits as well, with information about a time in our past that is sometimes forgotten. Christine Baker Kline's Orphan Train will hold you captive as this fascinating tale unfolds!