The Orphans' Nine Commandments

by William Roger Holman, Ted Blevins (Foreword)

When Roger Bechan was six, his mother packed his suitcase and told him they were going to Oklahoma City to visit an uncle. Instead, she took him to the Oklahoma Society for the Friendless, where he began a long journey through three orphanages and several foster homes. With all the color of the 1930s, this is a story of survival within an impersonal child-care system, a story filled with vivid characters, pathos and surprising humor, and the tenacity of a young boy who longs for a normal home—and can’t understand why his mother abandoned him or who his father is. No wonder he and his orphan friends omit the tenth commandment—to “honor your father and mother.”

As a teenager, the boy finds a home with a supportive couple in a small Oklahoma oil town. Roger Bechan becomes William Holman, who obtains degrees from two universities, marries and raises three sons, and becomes the youngest director of the San Francisco Public Library and an award-winning book designer. Late in life, he discovers the identity of his father—and a new family.

Genres: Nonfiction

238 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 2007

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an amazing story, but it didn't seem especially well-told to me.
More like a recitation of facts, but not enough emotion or introspection.

[Kathryn Spurgeon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A touching, open, honest rendition of a man who longed for a permanent home after having been passed around from orphanages to many foster homes. Overcoming these obstacles, his future is inspiring.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this autobiography was fascinating. It's the story of the former curator of the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, William Holman, who was abandoned at an orphanage in Oklahoma when he was 6 years old. I was shocked over and over with his story and amazed he managed to succeed later in life after what he calls so much "bad luck." There were no food stamps or food pantries in the early '30s, so parents who could not feed their children because of lack of work (this was the Depression) had to drop their kids off at overcrowded orphanages. Very moving book.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book chronicles a young boy as he moves for home to home and orphanage to orphanage during the Great Depression and the years following it. It is a true testament to the fact that children just need one consistent person in their lives to be successful and to learn how to form attachments to others. It also highlights problems within the child welfare system that we are still dealing with today.

[Jenny Schmenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. Another memoir about interesting times written by someone who can't write. Florid mixed messages, gross sentimentality, under- and -overstatements.

It's about a boy whose single mother dumped him in an orphanage during the Great Depression. He went through three orphanages and as many adoptive families, all the while pining for maternal love and a hint of information about the identity of his father.

Might be good reading if you're an orphan in your eighties.

[Kristy · Rating 3 out of 5]

disclaimer, my husband read and enjoyed, we met the author, great life story, wanted to record it here

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't let the rather boring cover deter you from this book. It is a treasure and is told with keen insight into emotional ups and downs of a "boy who longs for a normal home."

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A man's remembrances growing up in and out of orphanages in Oklahoma during the Great Depression