Review: The Orphan Collector by Ellen Marie Wiseman

 Dear Lit Loves,

I am beginning to think I should just trust my book club when it comes to selecting books of fiction to place on my "to read" stack.  This month's book selection was no disappointment either.  We read The Orphan Collector by Ellen Marie Wiseman which takes a peek into a timely setting, the Fall of 1918 in the slums of Philadelphia where a thirteen year old immigrant named Pia Lange has just moved with her family to an apartment.  The area is home to a host of immigrants, Pia's family is of German origin while others around her are of Irish origin.  Right off the bat, the Spanish flu hits and Pia arrives home from school one day not realizing her world is about to change forever.

Schools shut down, restaurants, the farmers' markets, and people start dying in large numbers after attending a parade that some thought was a terrible idea due to the rampant spread of the Spanish flu.  Pia's dad has joined the Army, but before he left her mother gave birth to two twin boys, Ollie and Max.  While Pia is at home with her mom assisting with the care of her twin brothers, her mother becomes exhausted and passes away thereby leaving Pia to look after her twin brothers.  So many people are dying that Pia watches as carriages and trucks arrive several times a day to pick up bodies of people who have died and their families have wrapped them in linens and deposited them outside their homes.  Pia begins a resilient journey in hopes of keeping her brothers and herself alive until the epidemic ends.  When she begins to realize there is no food she can find in the apartment for her twin brothers, she makes the decision to leave her brothers in a cubby in their mother's bedroom while she goes to various neighboring apartments to ask for food.  And while she is trying to gather donations, Pia starts feeling ill and collapses in the street.

Meanwhile, there is Bernice Groves who lost her son to the flu.  If I remember correctly, she also lost her husband to the flu as well.  She is shell-shocked as she continues to leave her son's body in his crib and mourn for him.  At a certain point, she wants to die herself.  When she notices Pia leave her apartment without her mom and twin brothers, her suspicions are sparked because she had noticed at the market that Pia's mother was of German descent.  Bernice is not keen on the influx of immigrants to the Philadelphia area.  She wants the country to remain Americanized with only English speakers.  She goes to check on Pia's mother and brothers only to find the apartment door unlocked, Pia's mother dead, and the twin brothers crying from inside a floor cubby.  Bernice decides to take the twin boys.

Pia's life becomes one of endless trauma and unyielding guilt.  She wakes up inside a church pew after being found collapsed on the street.  She is being tended to by a nun who informs her she has been practically unconscious for six days.  Next, she is deposited at an orphanage having no chance to return home to her twin brothers.  The orphanage is located in an isolated area, is dirty, serves inadequate meals, and is filled with children of all ages.  Pia is assigned to work in the nursery caring for and supervising the youngest orphans.

Bernice Groves decides to take the persona and uniform of a nurse.  She calls herself Nurse Wallis and she basically decides to begin reading obituaries, locating families who have lost young children, going to Pia's orphanage and obtaining a baby or child and offering them to couples who have lost a child.  And then she charges a finder's fee thus making money for herself and the twins.  Immigrant children that are orphaned and who Bernice locates are placed on trains going to other states and families.  

Pia gets sent to help a wealthy doctor's family.  Upon arrival at Dr. Hudson's residence, she is introduced as  being sent by the orphanage's lead nun to help Mrs. Hudson with four children.  Mrs. Hudson isn't leaving the house and has a "No Visitors" sign on her front door.  When Pia sees the affluence of the Hudsons, she is ashamed of her depraved state coming from an orphanage.  The Hudsons take her into their home and she happily takes on duties of helping care for young children while simultaneously wondering what became of her twin brothers.  The Hudsons realize too that Pia is gifted with being able to feel the afflictions of others when she touches them.  The Hudsons' realize this when she informs them there is something wrong with their son, Leo, but Dr. Hudson is unable to find anything wrong with him.  The next day Leo is deceased.  

Following Leo's death and when the family is most vulnerable, Nurse Wallis appears to console Mrs. Hudson and the family.  And one day, Nurse Wallis brings an orphaned boy whose mother could not keep him.  Nurse Wallis leaves the orphan with the Hudson family for two days and returns to discover Mrs. Hudson wants to keep the child.  That's when Mrs. Hudson learns that Nurse Wallis wants a tidy sum of money for the baby she has brought to the family.  Nurse Wallis's shenanigans start to unravel once she recognizes Pia and leaves one of Pia's brother's homemade rattle at the Hudson residence.  The pieces of the puzzle start to come together for Pia and The Hudson family.  I won't give away the ending of the story, but suffice it to say, Bernice Groves gets her due and Pia uncovers what really happened to her father and twin brothers.

This book was published right when our Covid 19 pandemic was beginning.  I thought the book demonstrated the varying choices people can make when faced with unrelenting trauma.  It also evocates how trauma affects a person's psyche, and the manner in which cities across our nation handled or mishandled the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic.  Plus, there was always the comparison in my mind while reading the book of how the pandemic we face today differs and yet is similar to the Spanish Flu epidemic.  It's a beautiful book.  I appreciated the author's willingness to befriend me and highly recommend this timely book.

Until My Next Review,

Grace

(Amy)

Review: Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life by Christie Tate

 Dear Lit Loves,

Greetings.  I just finished reading the memoir entitled Group:  How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life by Christie Tate, a writer and essayist from Chicago.  The book was published under the imprint, Avid Reader Press owned by Simon & Schuster, Inc.  

I wanted to read this book because it was about the writer's life as a young woman attending law school and her bout with an eating disorder along with leading an isolated life to the point that she begins entertaining thoughts of suicide.  Eventually, she locates a therapist who specializes in group therapy and believes that the therapy group will guide her past the shadows of her eating disorder as well as her social isolation.  The therapist has what he calls "prescriptions" he delegates to members of each therapy group when the need arises.  He does ask that all group members be brutally honest and not keep secrets because according to his methodology, to keep a secret is to internalize your own shame or someone else's shame.

Personally, I felt like the author had been traumatized at an early age and learned not to express her grief, but to repress it.  This is a young woman who is attending law school, but socially and romantically she just feels disconnected and broken.  The therapy groups she attends are led by her therapist, but for the most part, the group members take the lead in terms of challenging and witnessing the issues each group member brings to multiple sessions per week.  With this author, she does not wish to die a spinster or never find someone with whom to share her life.  The reader then begins to learn a great deal about what Christie wants in a potential mate via the multiple people she begins dating.  For example, one guy she chooses to date has financial issues and spends all his time gaming on a computer when he is not working.  His relationship with Christie will always come second to his love of gaming which leads the author to understand that this male does not put a priority on a more permanent relationship with another human being.   He can barely take care of himself much less take time to invest in another person and a relationship.  

Next, the author graduates from law school and accepts a junior associate legal position with a big firm in Chicago.  At the office, she meets a male intern who she dates for a short time. They have great chemistry until one day he just tells Christie it will never work out for them as a couple due to his religion.  Obviously, she is sharing all the ups and downs of her dating life whenever she attends group meetings.  Then there is Alex, who lives in Christie's building and is a junior associate at a different law firm, is a total fitness fanatic and willingly signs up both himself and Christie for marathons, fitness classes, etc.  One day after dating for quite a while, Alex tells Christie he believes "she is not the one" and subsequently drops her like a hot potato.  At this point in the book, it is obvious that Christie needs to find her voice, to speak up for herself in relationships and not just go along with a potential mate who does not appear to value what her interests are, only his.

The group therapy sessions Christie attends can become heated and sometimes in group therapy sessions I begin to wonder if her therapist realizes she can be a danger to herself if a romantic relationship sputters to an end and she becomes grossly disappointed regarding once again not finding her soul mate.  The group sessions Christie attends includes people who are quite blatant in what they perceive is happening in Christie's romantic life.  Sometimes the group finds two members in a verbal slugfest.  I know myself well enough that group therapy would not be healing for me,  Plus, I would not spend what this author does per month just on group therapy.  

One of the more difficult periods the author relates in the book is regarding whether she wants to date a married man who has kids and has already admitted to cheating on his wife.  Christie finally comes to the conclusion that if Reed would cheat on his wife of twenty years, he would most likely do the same to her even if he left his marriage.  Then there is a doctor named Brandon who Christie dates; however, he has some rather odd behavior and tells her she cannot discuss him in her group therapy sessions.  When she learns through a conversation he has with another male buddy that he is going to Cancun with a woman he attended college with, Christie hits the brakes fast.  Fortunately, she finally comes to the revelation that even if she is alone for the rest of her life, she will be okay.  She has a financially secure job, owns her own condo, and has friends and group members who care for her.  If this is all she ultimately has in life:  it is okay.  You do not have to absolutely find your soul mate in this lifetime in order to be happy and fulfilled.  Nor do I think a woman needs to romantically settle for someone who ultimately is selfish, hurtful, cruel, or immature just to be able to say, "I'm with someone."

I will not give away the ending of the book, but I will say it's quite intriguing to read about what happens to the author romantically as well as how her relationship with her therapist and her group members changes over a period of five years.  On a scale of 1 to 5, I would rate this book a three because some of the content is explicit and some readers may find that offensive while others may not give it a second thought.  Personally, I will be sticking with cognitive behavioral therapy with a single therapist should I require it.  The choice to read the book is ultimately one you will have to make for yourself.

Till My Next Review,

Grace (Amy)

Review: Long Bright River by Liz Moore

 Dear Lit Loves,

Greetings!  I chose the book Long Bright River by Liz Moore as the book selection of the month for the book club I belong to locally.  This is a quite riveting story revolving around two sisters who once were very close and now no longer speak to one another.  Both sisters have also taken very different paths in life. Mickey, the older sister, is a police detective and Kacey, her younger sister, is a heroin, opioid addict.  Mickey has always felt that she can at least keep an eye on Kacey since Kacey is a prostitute working the streets that Mickey patrols.  The neighborhood more specifically is an area in suburban Philadelphia called Kensington.  When a string of female addicts/prostitutes begin being found murdered in Kensington, Mickey and her police department are looking for the killer.

The setting for this book is an area I personally as a southerner am not familiar with, but the author did such an outstanding job describing Kensington that I felt like the city itself is/was a character in the story. I think there are many areas like Kensington all over the country; we just don't hear about them in the news as much as a place like Kensington which appears to be an East coast hub for heroin and opioid sales.  The author, upon moving to Philadelphia, willingly admits that there is generational addiction in her own family.  She was initially asked by a photojournalist to accompany him to Kensington to write the stories that go along with his portraits of various people who are often "stuck" in Kensington.  The author also conducted free writing workshop classes at a women's shelter in Kensington.  

I admire authors who have the courage to tackle real-life issues whether through contemporary fiction like this book or through memoir which is a genre in which I write.   I think authors like Liz Moore and especially myself often have a personal connection to the subject we are addressing in our books which to me adds authenticity to even a work of fiction.  

I think this book addresses how our childhoods and life experiences often reflect or give rise to the person we are in the present day.   There is always the philosophical debate of nature vs. nurture; are you who you are because of genetics or  due to the experiences that have thus far defined your life or perhaps both?  Clearly, we have two sisters who were raised by an often abrasive grandmother after their mother dies of an overdose at age eighteen.  Their father left them soon after their mother died and it is implied in the book that he is/was an addict as well.  So while Kacey would most likely argue that her addiction could be genetic since both parents were addicts, I think Mickey would argue that she was raised in the same household and became a functional, productive adult even with the same set of parents.  Personally, I think addiction whether it is alcohol, illegal substances, opioids, etc. has some element of genetics linked to it.    And I think also that our life experiences shape our character, values, and views.  I often wonder if the grandmother who raised Mickey and Kacey would have been a completely different person if she had not lost her husband so early in their marriage and then also lost her daughter to opioid addiction.    One of the most dramatic moments in the book is when the grandmother, Gee, discovers Kacey is in the hospital due to an overdoes.  Gee walks into the hospital, firmly looks Kacey in the eyes, and says she is not going through this process again.  She then drags Kacey from the hospital bed and takes her home.  Once they get home, Gee smacks Kacey.  At that point, Gee is of the opinion that Kacey can get her life together or get out of Gee's home.  Talk about an authoritarian parenting style.  

Also, I think this book demonstrates how the family, friends, acquaintances, and community are affected by having a family member who is also an addict.  Some families take Gee's approach to a family member who is an addict while other families may live in denial that anything is wrong with the family member.  And an addicts' friends are usually other addicts.  I got the feeling that many addicts watch or hear about their friends' overdose deaths and in some cases even witness an overdose death.  The community of Kensington as a whole has become a seedy, dangerous place to reside because of the heroin and opioid trade.  Through some of the pictures I found of the Kensington population, of which many were taken from the photojournalist who documented the people of Kensington, many appear shell-shocked, broken, and physically/emotionally ravaged.  On the other hand, you have the dealers, street drug sellers who appear to be making a fine living off the drug trade.  Families who have homes around the Kensington community appear to remain in their homes or only let their children play on their porches.  The police seem resigned that the drug culture in Kensington is here to stay.  One police officer said that as soon as he arrests one drug seller another one will take his/her place by the time he can book the one he has at the police station.

Through one newspaper article I read after reading this book, it appears the city even eliminated the subway or train stop for Kensington during the pandemic.  People still kept coming.  And then you have the children of addicts who are born addicted to a drug and go through withdrawal in a neonatal intensive care unit.  Most addicts can't take care of themselves much less be responsible for a child so the child either is taken in by a family member, is placed up for adoption, or is deposited in the foster care system.  One drug dealer who was interviewed by a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper says, "One day America is going to regret allowing this to happen.  I can't believe I am getting away with making a living this way in the United States!"  

The book also addresses the rampant corruption within many police forces.  While this brought to mind the death of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, it also made me wonder if some police officers are also customers/drug users as well.  Are any of the officers offering to not arrest someone in return for a sexual favor?  In the book, finding a person or woman dead along train tracks often appeared like an everyday, routine occurrence for the officers and paramedics.   I could see this being the case for a medical examiner, but when the police become immune to discovering a dead body, is it a way of coping with that part of the job or is it because he/she no longer cares?  Or worse, could a police officer have committed the murder and covered his/her tracks especially well?  The book definitely makes you wonder if the police are often complicit in the drug culture within Kensington or elsewhere for that matter.

I love books that bring to light an important issue like the opioid crisis.  My own extended family has vividly witnessed the effects of a family member's opioid addiction.  And I have a cousin who works as a nurse in the Emergency Room of a hospital and he often tells me about how paramedics completely run out of Nar-Con (I think that is the name of the drug used to revive an overdose victim).  And he has even said the hospital where he works has come dangerously close to not having enough Nar-Con to revive the mounting number of overdose victims that are brought to the Emergency Room,

Many folks were intimidated by this book just for its sheer length, but I would rather have a well-developed novel that keeps me turning the pages and wondering what happens to the main characters than one that has little character development or a novel that is formulaic.

Liz Moore handled the opioid issue respectfully throughout the book.  And she made me really truly think about how our country could handle the opioid crisis and what or if anything could have been done to save all the lost souls who died because of opioid addiction.   It's a stunning reality and it's not going away on its own or because people choose to look away.  I highly recommend this book.  It is gritty and not for the faint of heart, but it brings the opioid crisis up close and personal.  Sometimes that is what it takes to shed light on a problem that is manifesting all over America today.

Best,

Grace

(Amy)