Orphan Train
Christina Baker Kline
The majority
of our group loved Orphan Train
because of the mixture of historical and modern day stories.
There are so
many great personal memories from all of our members. One member’s mama was on
the orphan train. Her story is inspiring and heartbreaking. Her mama is
separated from her three siblings but they are later reunited in Kansas City.
Hearing this story is a reminder of the astounding number of orphan train
riders; from 1854 to 1929 an estimated 250,000 children come to
the Midwest. There are an estimated 2 million descendants from the train riders.
Changing the
main character’s name from Niamh to Dorothy to Vivian is unthinkable to most of
us. However, there were a number of stories of family members having their name
changed by foster parents and other family members. Dorothy is not treated as a
child or family at the Byrne house. Instead, Dorothy is chosen for labor skills
as a sewer. We think a lot of the orphans probably end up in situations where
they were free labor, much like Dutchy.
The Grote
house is horrific and we are mad Mr. Sorenson even thought about sending
Dorothy back to live with them. The filth, lice, and food at the Grote’s is
such an extreme difference from Niamh’s life with her family.
The
Nielsen’s are a great family and gave Vivian many opportunities with the store.
We can understand why she did not think of the Nielsen’s as her real family,
but she never thinks of them as more than her foster parents.
One member
has a criticism of this novel being too contrived. She feels Jack’s immediately
desire to date Molly and setting her up with his mother’s employer for her
community service is convenient. Molly and Vivian’s similar lives are also too
contrived. Another criticism of the novel is the portrayal of female foster parents.
Neither Molly nor Vivian get along with multiple foster mothers.
One plot
point we all take issue with is Vivian giving her daughter away. We cannot
accept Vivian putting her daughter through the exact same hardships she went
through. Giving her daughter up for adoption is out of character and hard to
read. Having one last piece of Dutchy would have given Vivian strength. All of
the members found this piece of the story too far fetched to believe.
Despite
these criticisms, Orphan Train is
an intriguing part of history most of us want to learn more about.
