The Orphan Train-a Novel  by Christina Baker Kline

Orphans portrayed as heroic figures are not new to literature.  W have sympathized with many through the years, such as Jane Eyre, Mary Lennox ( Secret Garden), David Copperfield, Harry Potter, and even Superman to name a few.

In Orphan Train we meet yet another.  Niamh (pronounced Neeve) Power,  is a young Irish girl whose immigrant family settles in New York City in the 1920’s.  She is orphaned at age nine when a fire tears through their tenement housing and consequently she is put on the “Orphan Train” heading to the Midwest.

The story is fiction but based on the actual Orphan Train Movement founded by

The Children’s Aid Society and later the Catholic Foundling Hospital who in the 1850’s, in New York City alone, placed over 30,000 children in foster homes throughout the country.  The children were transported to their new homes on trains which were labeled “orphan” or  “baby” trains.  This period of mass relocation of children ended in the 1920’s with the beginning of organized foster care in America.

The trains would arrive in a Midwest town where local community leaders had assembled interested townspeople. The children would be put on a stage-like podium for viewing and inspection where they would often dance or sing to attract attention.  The town’s people would examine the children, perhaps feeling muscles and checking teeth and after a brief interview take the chosen one home. Sadly, many siblings were separated during the process because some people only wanted one child.  Historians report that adolescent girls were the last chosen as they often seemed a threat to the women of the household.  Boys could live in the barn or shed and provide the needed labor on the farms.  Interestingly enough, redheads were rarely wanted.

In spite of her red hair, Niamh is taken in by the Minnesota Nielson family to work as a seamstress but not allowed to attend school.  When the depression hits in 1929 she is let go (another mouth to feed) and placed with the Brynes who name her Dorothy and take her in as a “mother’s helper” for a family of five children. Although she is allowed to attend school, the home conditions are terrible resulting in an incident that once again leaves her homeless.  She walks miles to the schoolhouse in the middle of the night through blizzard conditions where a compassionate teacher takes her in until a new foster family can be found.  With the Daly’s, who name her Vivian, she finally finds a stable home environment. She remains with them until she is an adult.   Her life story is told in flashback as the novel opens with the 91-year old Vivian, revealing her story in bits and pieces as she and a teenager named Molly go through the possessions in her attic.

Molly is also a foster child, a Penobscot Indian, who has had a troubled adolescence.  Now seventeen years old  in 2011, she is assigned a project by her caseworker to complete 50 hours of service to avoid “juvie” and remain in school.  Her “project” is to help Vivian clear her attic.  What starts off as a strange partnership and penance gradually turns into a friendship between the 17 year- old and the 91 year- old.  As they work together and Vivian’s story unfolds, Molly discovers that she and Vivian are not so different after all.

Rich in detail and epic in scope, Orphan Train is a novel of upheaval and resilience and of the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out who we are. In an interview with the author, Christina Baker Kline says Orphan Train wrestles with questions of cultural identify and family history.  There is also the interesting concept of “portaging”. What possessions does one choose to take with them and are left behind.  These issues make this an excellent book discussion read.

In her research she interviewed hundreds of orphan train children (survivors are now all over 90 years old) and read hundreds of first person testimonials.  She also traveled to Galway County in Ireland to research the main character’s Irish background.  She attended train riders’ reunions in New York and Minnesota and interviewed the orphans and their descendents.  They were eager to tell their stories and tended not to dwell on the considerable hardships they’d faced but focused on gratitude for their children and grandchildren—lives that wouldn’t have been possible if they hadn’t been on those trains.  The most surprising thing that came out of her research was that many train riders believed their train was the only one. They didn’t know they were part of a massive 75-year experiment until their own children and grandchildren got involved.  According to some estimates, there are more than two million descendents.

The National Orphan Train Complex in Concordia, Kansas maintains an archive of riders’ stories and also houses a research facility. Between 1853 and 1929, more than 250,000 children rode the Orphan Train to new lives.

Kline brings this time in history alive. Previous novels by Christina Baker Kline are Bird in Hand and The Way Life Should Be.

In the culmination of this story of friendship and second chances for Vivian and Molly, you may want to have a box of tissues handy.

   The Housemaid’s Daughter by Barbara Mutch

The recent death of Nelson Mendula has put Apartheid back in the news.  The Housemaid’s Daughter is a fictional account of this turbulent time through the voice of one young and humble black girl whose story speaks volumes for the nation.

Barbara Mutch’s debut novel was inspired by her grandmother’s migration from Ireland to South Africa in the early 1900’s to marry her grandfather after a five-year engagement.  They settled in Cradock in the harsh Karoo desert.  Unprepared for Cardock’s isolation and the issues of racial inequality, she befriended the household maid much to the neighbors’ disapproval.

Like Mutch’s grandmother, fictional Cathleen Harrington leaves her family in Ireland in 1919 to marry Edward. Isolated and estranged, her only companions are her diary, her housemaid and later the housemaid’s daughter, who is named Ada after Cathleen’s Irish sister.

Ada is born in 1930 under the bony shade of a thorn tree at the back of the big house and for her entire life feels the fabric of the place.  It is the only home she has known.

In spite of having a son and daughter of her own, Cathleen bonds most closely to Ada, who is receptive to her love and her teachings. Under Cathleen’s tutelage Ada becomes an accomplished pianist. Ada discovers that musical notes are like words. They meant one thing when played on their own and quite another when strung together.  Ada begins to see new possibilities for her life and her awareness of this is one of the most endearing parts of the book.

Ada in turn is the only one in the household who truly understands the inner Cathleen. In her zest to learn to read, she cannot resist reading Cathleen’s diary which she stumbles upon..

However Ada’s dreams of any bright future are shattered when she discovers she is pregnant. She  knows the child will be mixed-race—a child who belongs nowhere in that time of history—so she flees the only home and love she has known rather than disgrace Cathleen’s family. Cathleen must decide if she will risk the constraints of apartheid to search for her.

The only thing that saves Ada and gives her any hope for a new life is her love and knowledge of music.  She becomes a piano teacher in a township poverty community school across the Great Fish River. The geography of this beautiful region of South Africa is described vividly, both in it’s beauty and it’s harshness.

Once the child, Dawn, is born, Ada and Dawn are both ostracized there also.  As she deals with adversity on many levels, Ada Mabuse becomes a powerful symbol for marginalized black women and a role model for those who face oppression anywhere in the world.

Cathleen and Ada’s love of music is a constant theme throughout the story. Music lovers will delight in the variety of music discussed and played.  One of the most inspirational pieces in the story is Chopin’s Prelude no. 15.  It opens with a deceptively simple melody that deepens to a stormy, complex heart before returning to the original theme. The repeating A-flat that echoes throughout reminds listeners of falling raindrops and the piece is often called the Raindrop Prelude.  I think this pattern is also symbolic of Ada’s and Cathleen’s life journey, spanning five decades.

Some call Housemaid’s Daughter South Africa’s version of The Help.  Good Housekeeping says, “The friendship at its center will leave your heart singing.”

I would agree and add that a singing heart is a great way to start a new year in books.

Moroccan Carrot Salad

Trying new recipes from Clean Cuisine book (an 8 week anti-inflammatory eating guide)
This was made with no oil but is still moist.  The cardamom and cumin add an exotic twist.
Warning:  Cardamom was selling for $14.00 for a  spice bottle--luckily my friend, Bonnie, had one in her pantry she was happy to share).  I think friends should have a spice co-op network.

1 orange peeled and cut into segments
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
unrefined sea salt to taste
10 ounces shredded  (this was quite labor intensive...next time I will buy them already shredded)
3/4 cup chopped fresh mint
1/2 cup dark raisins


1.  Place the orange, almonds, cumin, cardamom and lime juice in a high speed blender. Blend until smooth and set aside.

2. In a large serving bowl, add the shredded carrots, mint and raisins. Pour the vinaigrette on top of the carrot mixture and toss gently to coat.  Season with salt to taste.  Let salad sit at room temperature for 20 minutes to absorb the flavors,  Serve at room temperature.

A Memorable Journey to Macedonia

Call it Serendipity or fate but whatever it is, sometimes life has a way of coming full circle in a wonderful way.  My recent trip to Macedonia and search for my ancestors was successful thanks to many chance encounters and to helpful people along the way.

I guess my story really begins over 90 years ago.  My paternal grandparents, Spiro and Vaska Bektesh  and their three sons, Peter, Dimitre and Milan (my father) immigrated to America from Prilep, Macedonia in 1921.  They settled in Gary, Indiana ,where a large Bulgarian/Macedonia community was forming due to the work opportunities with US Steel.  It was a wonderful way to grow up as this community continued to practice their Macedonian traditions and religious beliefs.  And of course their delicious cuisine!  I have wonderful memories of that time.  One vivid memory was my mother showing me a photo of an elegant home that had my maiden name carved in the front facing, saying it was our “family” home.  I’ve carried that photo with me for many years through many moves and each time I saw it, I said, “Someday I’m going to Macedonia to find that house.”

Fast forward to 2013.  I meet Monica Araneta through a mutual friend playing Mahjong.  It was only by chance that I mentioned that my husband and I were traveling to Macedonia this summer and I was so surprised to hear that she had been there the previous year through the ASU Sister City program of Tempe and Skopia.  She also introduced me to Dobrin and Tina  Nedelkov who travel to Prilep each year to visit their family.  

I told Monica of my search for the “house” and thought perhaps they could tell me how and where to begin.  Thanks to modern technology, I emailed the photo to Monica who forwarded it to Dobrin and to my amazement, they replied that they knew exactly where the house was in Prilep--“next to the high school by the river”.  I couldn’t believe my good fortune.  I was  finally going to see my ancestors’ home. 

My husband and I met with Dobrin and Tina who were so kind to give us a detailed map of the city and the location of the house.  Shortly after, they sent me an article that had just appeared in the Macedonian paper showing the home restored under the project of the Ministry of Culture for restoration and conservation of the more significant facades in urban cores.  The current owner and resident was Trajce Bektesh.  (my maiden name) Tina phoned her mother in Prilep who called the current residents and told them “relatives from America” were hoping to meet them on our visit. 

The first week of June we knocked on their door and Trajce Bektesh and his wife, Donka embraced us with open arms. As we discussed our family stories, the pieces fell into place and we learned that Trajce’s father, Peter, and my grandfather Spiro were first cousins.  They came to America at the turn of the century to “earn their fortune”.  We believe they worked on the transcontinental railroad.  When they returned to Macedonia, Peter invested in property consisting of hotels and retail shops and built this beautiful home.  My grandfather took his “fortune” and brought his family to America. 

Our new-found ancestors insisted we spend the night and we shared several meals and stories.  They were the most gracious hosts to five people they had never met. (We were traveling with Bulgarian friends from Chicago—another serendipity story I’ll save for another time).

This was a wonderful trip to Macedonia and it makes my heart sing when I think of the fortuitous events and kind people who helped me reach my destination:

ONE LAST BIT OF SERENDIPITY

One of the other Macedonian families who also settled in Gary, Indiana, were the Choncoffs.   Although Mary Choncoff was older than me, we did become acquainted at the many dances, weddings and picnics that brought all the Macedonians together and our fathers were friends.

In 1991 my husband and I moved to Phoenix but when I returned to Gary for my mother’s funeral in 1994, a mutual friend told me that Mary Choncoff lived in Tempe.  I got in touch and was able to experience some of the wonderful events she hosted and co-coordinated for the Macedonian community in Arizona.  Sadly, she passed shortly after that and I regretted that I did not have more time with this amazing lady.

I am grateful to Mary Choncoff for establishing Sister Cities which in turn led to meeting Monica and then Dobrin and Tina. How rewarding to think that the friendship of my father and Mary’s father has come full circle.  This was not only a journey of many miles but of many generations who value their heritage. I am so proud to be a Macedonian...a rich culture of loving, ambitious and hospitable people.

  

The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes

A true story made headlines November 4, 2013.  A trove of approximately 1500 works of art confiscated by the Nazis in WWII were seized in a Munich apartment. The value was estimated to be $1.3 billion by artists such as Picasso, Matisse and Chagall.  The news goes on to say that determining the rightful owners of the works decades after they were either sold under duress or seized could take years. 

One might think this would be a great premise for a novel and The Girl You Left Behind might just be that novel.  Published earlier this year, it was obviously written before this news broke.  The work of art at the heart of this story is of course fictional as are the events surrounding it.  The painting entitled “The Girl You Left Behind”, was painted in the year 1915 by a French artist, Eduardo Leferve and it resurfaces in the year 2001 in London.

There are actually two girls left behind in this story.  The first is Sophie Lefevre whose artist husband Eduardo goes to war for France in 1916.  The second is Liv a young widow in London whose husband dies prematurely in 2000.  Their stories, some eighty years apart, are connected through a painting  of “the girl” who is actually Sophie painted by her husband.  The painting resurfaces in the story in Liv’s bedroom. It was a gift from her husband on their honeymoon.  The two girls are united by a passion for this painting which represents both their husband’s love and devotion to them.

The dual timeframe storyline almost a century apart flows effortlessly from one to the other, although Sophie’s historical storyline is, I believe, the stronger of the two.  Sophie, struggling to keep the family’s hotel afloat under the German occupation of France, hangs her portrait in the hotel where it is a daily reminder of the proud self-reliant girl her husband saw.  She wants this reminder as the German invasion causes her to feel that the “glowing girl willful in her confidence” is slipping away due to enemy oppression and poor nutrition.  Although the opening scene would have readers doubt this when she confronts the German Kommandant’s accusation that she is harboring livestock.  It is my favorite scene in the book.

The risk she takes in hanging the portrait in a public place is that it is also visible to all.  When the German Kommandant notices the painting, his comments reveal that he is a cultured man..  The portrait is the catalyst that  causes Sophie to risk everything—reputation, family and her life—in hopes of seeing her Eduardo again.

What follows is a wary connection made between the Kommandant and Sophie that leads to tragic circumstances

Ninety years later the portrait hangs in Liv’s bedroom, as a cherished memento of her husband and their honeymoon.   On the one-year anniversary of her husband’s death, Livy meets Paul and his friendship is the first stirring of feeling she’s had for anyone since the death of her husband.  Unfortunately, Paul works for a company specializing in the return of artworks looted during wartime.  I think you can see where this is headed.  Instead of a blossoming relationship, they are now on opposing sides. The tension mounts as the case of rightful ownership goes to court.  Documents produced at the trial take us back in time to Sophie’s ordeal and  we discover, as Paul Harvey would say, “the rest of the story”.  Was the portrait stolen from the Lefevre family or was it gifted? 

Liv, like Sophie, takes a great risk as she defends her right to keep the portrait as she becomes subject to unthinking public hostility. Although the painting disappeared during WWI, she gets hate mail urging her to end the suffering of the Jewish people. Return what is rightly theirs. Both heroines are united in their determination to fight for the thing they love most....whatever the cost.

As one review, which I totally agree with, says,  “JoJo Moyes does a majestic job of conjuring a cast of characters who are charismatic, credible and utterly compelling.”

This is the second book I’ve read by this author this past year and the other one, Me Before You was also mesmerizing.  Moyes finds a way to place her characters in extremely difficult situations where the stakes are high no matter what decision they make.  Me Before You is the story of a young caretaker who falls in love with her patient—a young, handsome, formerly virile man now a paralyzed from an accident.  A full box of tissues read.

JoJo Moyes, who lives in London, is a former journalist turned novelist. Her novel Foreign Fruit won the Romantic Novelists’ Association Novel of the Year Award in 2004.

Safe with Me by Amy Hatvany

If you like Jodi Picoult novels, you’ll probably like this one.  It deals with sensitive issues such as child loss, organ donors, spousal abuse and the boundaries of women’s friendships—yes, all in one book.

The story grabs you right at the start and doesn’t let go until the last pages (which I kept turning) to see how these characters would react to the many challenging issues they faced.  Their actions are believable yet controversial so this would make a good discussion book.

In my monthly book club group we open the discussion with just a word and a number--how much we enjoyed the book on a scale of 1-10 and one word that best describes it for us.

Wingshooters would be a 10 and my word would be powerful.  The better the book the harder it is to choose just one word...sometimes we fudge and try to string two words together.  In that case I would say hauntingly powerful.

Wingshooters is set in 1974 –the years of the Boston school bussing crisis, Watergate, the end of the Vietnam War and just after the Civil Rights Movement. These events seem distant from the small town in rural Wisconsin, but in fact they are a great influence in the events that take place. This story also reminds us that racism was not limited to just the south.

Often compared to To Kill a Mockingbird and Snow Falling on Cedars, Wingshooters explores the effects of change on this small isolated community when the Garretts, a black couple from Chicago arrive to work there.  Their presence challenges and disrupts a set way of life.  Betty Garrett is a nurse in the new medical clinic and her husband, Joe, works as a substitute teacher at the elementary school.  The very thought of them having responsible positions deeply disturbs an influential core of people in the town, especially because Mr. Garrett has contact with their children.  And then the very idea of “an N word nurse laying hands on our children” repulses them. The N word is used freely by these people so fearful of change.  At times, it’s hard to believe this is a northern town in the 70’s. 

These events are told from the perspective of Michelle LeBeau, now in her 40’s and living in Los Angeles, as she remembers them from the year she was nine years old. Her Japanese mother who she lived with for eight years in Japan disappears and her American father sets out to find her, thinking she is somewhere in the states.  He leaves Michelle with his parents in Wisconsin temporarily, but as time passes it is obvious he is not returning for her and this realization breaks her heart.  Her savior is grandfather, Charlie LeBeau.

Thus begins one of the most endearing aspects of the story—the love affair between Michelle and her grandfather Charlie, a former minor league baseball player, an expert hunter and one of the town’s most respected men. What makes his love for Michelle so amazing is there is no mistake that Charlie is a bigot in every sense of the word. He is “not shy about using racial epithets or blaming blacks, Jews or Democrats for all the country’s problems”.  Yet he alone in the town is able to overlook the fact that she is half Japanese, as her appearance so aptly reveals.

Although the townspeople do not embrace Michelle, they tolerate her because of their respect for Charlie, but he cannot follow her to school where she endures abuse from the children on a daily basis, from insults such as “Nip Head, Your Daddy’s a Jap lover, Your Mama’s a Geisha whore.” to physical torments—shoving, pushing, black and blue bruises.  What we today call bullying was ignored in this town where children repeated what they probably heard their bigoted parents say. Deserted by her parents and friendless at school, Michelle is a sad, lonely child who spends more time observing life around her than living it.

She finds comfort in her Springer Spaniel, Brett, romping through the woods or riding her bike on the many trails near her home. But her greatest enjoyment is with her grandfather, Charlie, who teaches her to hunt, fish, play baseball, and eventually how to defend herself.  He calls her Mikey, perhaps to replace the son who never followed in his manly footsteps. Michelle however loves being his protégé.  By the age of eight she could shoot a gun, milk a cow, scale fish, gut squirrels, drive the Pontiac and even operate the tractor. She is in awe of her grandfather who has taught her not only these things but an appreciation of nature.  ”He was a man in a vital fundamental way that grown men simply aren’t today, at least not in the city.” Decades later as an adult, Michelle still marvels that “this strong handsome man whose company everyone desired seemed to want nobody’s company more than mine.” 

Michelle is also attracted to the black family, the Garretts, who appear kind, graceful and dignified. As the town’s prejudicial meter now swings from her to the Garretts, she waits with pity and fear for the rejection they are going to face. There is no one more qualified than herself to warn them as they bravely go about their jobs.  She knows they will never be accepted, but even she cannot foresee the tragic events that are set into motion when Mr. Garrett suspects child abuse of one of his students, Kevin.  When Kevin ends up in the emergency room with a broken arm from a “clumsy fall”, Mrs. Garrett sees evidence of previous harm to the child and, merely doing her job, reports it to the authorities.  This controversial accusation is against one of the town leaders, Earl, who happens to be Charlie’s best friend.  Earl, a Vietnam vet, owns the local gun shop where the good ‘ole boy network often meets.  They decide to take action to make conditions for the Garretts so uncomfortable that they will high tail it back to Chicago. This doesn’t happen and the consequences become ugly.

There is a sense of foreboding right from the start yet there are moments of tranquil beauty in the writing and the setting.  On one of their nature walks, Charlie shows Michelle a secret place with a beautiful lake that he has been coming to as a child—a spiritual place that he has shared with no other person and where his reverence for God is more visible to Michelle than what she has seen of him at church or in his nightly prayers.  In their hunting outings his steadfast rules often apply to life as well, such as “never hurt anything female,” and “you should always take care of what you kill”.   The scene describing the Canada Geese is another beautiful passage and also relates thematically to Mikey’s situation.

This is a rich, complex story that book discussion groups will devour. There is much to explore both of our nation and the people in it.  It shows them at their best and worst and how those qualities are often portrayed in the same person. It pits family members against each other and tests friendships and loyalty.  At the climax, Charlie must make difficult choices and it is only years later that Michelle truly comes to understand the motivation of both her own actions one fateful night and her grandfather’s decisions.  

Like the main character, author Nina Reboyr, who now lives in Los Angeles, was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and an American father and spent a few childhood years in Wisconsin. Although her book is fiction, it’s themes ring true to life as it explores sin, faith and redemption.  Most remarkably, it is the story of an enduring love between a grandfather and granddaughter and how this relationship continues to influence her life on a daily basis. One note of caution. It’s powerful message may haunt you long after you put it down.