Orphan Train

 

Summary (from the publisher): The author of Bird in Hand and The Way Life Should Be delivers her most ambitious and powerful novel to date: a captivating story of two very different women who build an unexpected friendship: a 91-year-old woman with a hidden past as an orphan-train rider and the teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to questions no one has ever thought to ask.

Nearly eighteen, Molly Ayer knows she has one last chance. Just months from "aging out" of the child welfare system, and close to being kicked out of her foster home, a community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping her out of juvie and worse.

Vivian Daly has lived a quiet life on the coast of Maine. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past. As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly discovers that she and Vivian aren't as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.

The closer Molly grows to Vivian, the more she discovers parallels to her own life. A Penobscot Indian, she, too, is an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past. As her emotional barriers begin to crumble, Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life - answers that will ultimately free them both.

Rich in detail and epic in scope, Orphan Train is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of second chances, of unexpected friendship, and of the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out who we are.

Review: Revealing a fascinating look at a true historical practice, this novel follows the story of Vivian. Arriving in New York City as an Irish immigrant originally named Niamh, Vivian tragically loses her family and ends up placed on a train going west with other orphans and later lined up for families to pick out children to take home. She loses her family, her home, all her belongings, and even her name. In alternating chapters, Vivian's storyline intersects with modern day teenager Molly Ayer. Molly has been through a series of foster homes and is close to aging out of the system. She winds up completing community service hours helping Vivian go through ancient trunks in her attic. As the two discover they have more in common than they originally thought and items in the trunk are slowly sorted through, Vivian's traumatic past is slowly revealed. 

This was an engaging story about the perils that potentially await children whose own families become unable to care for them. In relaying Vivian's story, the author examines a fascinating practice in America's history of sending young immigrant orphans western to be lined up and examined like slaves or livestock. Often taken in because families were looking for free labor, many failed to find happy families. Yet others did wind up with kind people who treated them well. While frequently novels with alternating storylines will have one plotline that is more engaging, Kline did a good job of having the storylines intersect. Although I found the historical storyline, where a young Vivian is struggling to survive in 1929 and beyond slightly more interesting, the reader also learns more about her story through Molly's perspective in the Maine 2011 timeline. 

An engaging novel about a true American story that many Americans alive today can personally relate to, either through the orphan trains or through foster care or adoption. I felt such empathy for young Vivian - also known as Niamh and Dorothy - as she struggles to survive and suffers through multiple homes and losses at so young an age. It was hard not to root for and like her as a character, which speaks to the author's skill at creating a complicated and inspiring character. 

Stars: 4