David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "pam-jenoff"
The Orphan's Tale
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the ORPHAN'S TALE is the versatility of the author, Pam Jenoff. She has a bachelor's degree in international affairs, a masters degree in history from Cambridge and a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, besides her writing credits.
As a diplomat she handled Holocaust affairs in Poland. She got the idea for this book from the archives of Yad Vashem, the WWII Jewish museum. One of the lead characters, Noa, gets pregnant by a German soldier and is thrown out of her home by her father. The only job she can find, after the Nazis take her baby, is as a cleaning lady at a railroad terminal. One day she hears an eerie sound coming from one of the cars. It's a carload full of dead and dying babies. But one is still alive; she reaches in, grabs him, and starts walking. She could never hold her job and keep the baby. Also at Yad Vashem, Jenoff ran across a circus that rescued Jews. Noa is taken in by a fictional circus and taught how to be an aerialist. The second main character is Astrid, who teaches her how to work on the flying trapeze in a matter of weeks. Astrid is a Jewish woman who was married to a German soldier until Hitler outlawed such marriages. He told her to hit the bricks. Astrid was raised as a feature performer on the flying trapeze at another circus. They were disbanded because the owner, Astrid's father, was Jewish. But their main competitor takes her in.
Here's the rub. Did you believe the part about the Jewish babies? Well, that part was true, except that many were toddlers. Jenoff emphasizes that the “babies” didn't even know their names. When Jenoff needs to move the story she will very often grasp at straws, so to speak. There's a convenient heart attack; the circus tent catching on fire, making the ending possible; the owner's son fires 2/3 of the support staff, who could have put out the fire easily; they were concerned about fires. They practiced dealing with this very thing. We also have two lovers, one of whom is the teenage son of a local mayor who is in cahoots with the Nazis. The woman can't help herself; she only knows she loves him. Actually, Jenoff needs the love affair more than she needs credibility. Then there's the part where Astrid's ex-husband shows that not even Nazis are all bad as he provides an escape for Astrid. Does he regret what he did to Astrid? Not enough to stand up for her. In the real version of this story, the husband refuses to give up his Jewish wife and joins the circus with her. But Jenoff needed Astrid to be another outcast.
I was a history major and teacher. Certainly the Yad Vasehem anecdotes were interesting, but the Nazi atrocities stand on their own. You don't need fiction when the real thing is so horrible. If you want to know about the Nazi regime, read THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH. You'll find out what happened to the animals who thought murdering Jews was “The final solution”.
As a diplomat she handled Holocaust affairs in Poland. She got the idea for this book from the archives of Yad Vashem, the WWII Jewish museum. One of the lead characters, Noa, gets pregnant by a German soldier and is thrown out of her home by her father. The only job she can find, after the Nazis take her baby, is as a cleaning lady at a railroad terminal. One day she hears an eerie sound coming from one of the cars. It's a carload full of dead and dying babies. But one is still alive; she reaches in, grabs him, and starts walking. She could never hold her job and keep the baby. Also at Yad Vashem, Jenoff ran across a circus that rescued Jews. Noa is taken in by a fictional circus and taught how to be an aerialist. The second main character is Astrid, who teaches her how to work on the flying trapeze in a matter of weeks. Astrid is a Jewish woman who was married to a German soldier until Hitler outlawed such marriages. He told her to hit the bricks. Astrid was raised as a feature performer on the flying trapeze at another circus. They were disbanded because the owner, Astrid's father, was Jewish. But their main competitor takes her in.
Here's the rub. Did you believe the part about the Jewish babies? Well, that part was true, except that many were toddlers. Jenoff emphasizes that the “babies” didn't even know their names. When Jenoff needs to move the story she will very often grasp at straws, so to speak. There's a convenient heart attack; the circus tent catching on fire, making the ending possible; the owner's son fires 2/3 of the support staff, who could have put out the fire easily; they were concerned about fires. They practiced dealing with this very thing. We also have two lovers, one of whom is the teenage son of a local mayor who is in cahoots with the Nazis. The woman can't help herself; she only knows she loves him. Actually, Jenoff needs the love affair more than she needs credibility. Then there's the part where Astrid's ex-husband shows that not even Nazis are all bad as he provides an escape for Astrid. Does he regret what he did to Astrid? Not enough to stand up for her. In the real version of this story, the husband refuses to give up his Jewish wife and joins the circus with her. But Jenoff needed Astrid to be another outcast.
I was a history major and teacher. Certainly the Yad Vasehem anecdotes were interesting, but the Nazi atrocities stand on their own. You don't need fiction when the real thing is so horrible. If you want to know about the Nazi regime, read THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH. You'll find out what happened to the animals who thought murdering Jews was “The final solution”.
