The History in Orphan Train

Vivian did not have a choice in how her life turned out. When her entire family dies in a fire Vivian is left helpless and all alone. With no choice in the matter she is sent out West to be put on display in different town to see if any family would like to take her. She meets Dutchy who rightfully believes he will be put to work as a farm hand. When they and the other orphans are put on display they are forced to stand silent as they are poked and prodded by their prospective "parents". However, as one of the women from the PBS documentary mentioned, many of these people did not want children: they wanted a slave.

Only then does the stark similarity between the orphan trains and the slave trade become clear. Just like the African Americans forced into slavery these children were at the mercy of anyone who took them. There was practically no way to monitor their treatment and welfare. Many adolescent boys, like Dutchy were used as free labor and had no choice but to be worked to death or run away.  

The Great Depression also functions as a large plot point of the novel. People were first eager to take the free labor offered by the children. But soon another mouth to feed was not work it. At her first home with the Byrnes, Vivian experiences just this. Mrs. Byrne was eager to use Vivian as a seamstress until the Depression set in. Then she herself fell into a depression and refused to care for Vivian any longer.

The book also parallels the very sad and real incidents that occurred during World War II. Vivian is able to keep her store running throughout rationing and even flourishing throughout the war but  nonetheless she experiences terrible tragedy. Dutchy, who she reunited with and married, dies fighting in the war. There were about 5 million "war widows" after World War II. Vivian becomes one of these women and sadly gives up her child for adoption after her ordeal.

The history of Orphan Train was so well researched by Christina Baker Kline. She created an authentic historical environment that Vivian lives through.



                                                       

Inspirational Enzo

Many of the quotes I liked from The Art of Racing in the Rain were either really long or didn't work out of context. This one was just the right length and connected to the book enough while not seeming completely crazy out of context. Like, "The zebra keeps dancing," would have. The image I chose looks a lot like my dog even though it's actually from Google Images. Despite what the book said, I always pictured Enzo as a Golden Retriever. This quote, while a little YOLO-ish, really expressed what Enzo learned from Eve's death. He vows to appreciate life as she did and I think that is a wonderful sentiment. It showcases one of the best parts of the book: Enzo learning from the people around him how to be a good man.

Enzo the dog?

I love dogs. When I was little my favorite books were all about dogs. So I was very excited to read a book narrated by a dog. Well, I’ve been disappointed.

It’s not that the narration is completely off, but there is something we expect from a talking, or at least a thinking dog. Well what we expect is this:

 

But even if Garth Stein wanted to go for something more subtle than that he had to at least capture that doggy nature. Enzo is sweet, sometimes, but is just a bit too much like a man. I suppose that may be the point, that is Enzo’s goal after all. But then, why advertise your book as being narrated by a dog. It’s narrated by a human soul trapped in a dog body.

Because of how I feel about this I think the best parts of the book are when Enzo does act like a dog and doesn’t understand how the world works. For instance, the demon zebra. Enzo hallucinates this crazy zebra massacre and continues to be haunted by the evil zebra stuffed animal.  At first, it weirded me out but it’s strangely growing on me.

 

Anyway, this is going to sound mean, but I don’t really understand the appeal of this book. I understand people wanting to read a book narrated by a dog (so did I) but  I don’t understand why they would recommend this  book, which to me is NOT really narrated by a dog. It’s narrated by a prophetically wise soul that just happens to follow this guy named Denny around.

I'm Amazing Amy

Which “Gone Girl” Character Are You?

1. You got: Nick Dunne

   You have good intentions, we know. You want what’s best for everybody, but you’ve definitely made some mistakes. Still, you’re mostly trustworthy and a genuinely good guy. After all, it’s not *your* fault that you’re awkward in front of a camera!

   20th Century Fox
2. You got: Amy Dunne

   Amazing Amy. You’re a planner. You’re organized. And you don’t trust anyone. Sure, you have some parent problems, but you ALWAYS get what you want…even if you have to kill for it.

   20th Century Fox

 

 

 

Maybe I shouldn't be surprised on this one...Just kidding! But I wonder what it would be like to take a serious quiz analyzing what character you would be. It's possible I would still be Amy, but I don't think so. Buzzfeed quizzes like these just ask you what's your favorite color and pet and other random things. They have hardly anything to do with actually being like the character.
Am I anything like Amy? I like to plan things I suppose, but I'm not particularly organized. But I guess I do pay attention to small details. I'm not quite as sociopathic as her, to say the least. It's funny though, I'm not offended or anything by getting her. She is very smart and she knows what she wants and how to get it. Though I certainly wouldn't want to be her even for a second it's, not nice, but interesting to know that at least according to Buzzfeed I am somewhat similar to Amy Elliot Dunne.

crazycrazycrazycrazy

Honestly, towards the end of Part One I had completely given up hope for Nick. The evidence was so strong against him and when he went out to the shed and thought nonononono  I believed we would find Amy’s decaying body inside. Then I flipped the page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So yeah, that was my basic reaction to part two of Gone Girl. Everything I had thought I knew about Amy was a total lie. She had literally created a character to take her place, to mess with the reader’s mind and turn them against Nick the way the police and the media betrayed him. When I started the book, I was first on Nick’s side. He seemed kind of messed up but Amy seemed really demanding and manipulative. As part one went on, however, I grew to pity Amy more and more. By the end I thought Nick had to have done it and that maybe Gillian Flynn had known that the reader would think that the killer would not be Nick because that was too obvious so that then the least obvious thing to do was to make Nick the killer. That’s how good Amy’s scheme was. I had to justify that to myself. The woman is so messed up, so evil, I was literally crying over how disturbed I was by her.

I was the most creeped out by this section of Amy’s confession:

“I remember always  being baffled by other children. I would be at a birthday party and watch the other kids giggling and making face, and I would try to do that too, but I wouldn’t understand why. I would sit there with tight elastic thread of the birthday hat parting the pudge of my underchin, with the grainy frosting of the cake bluing my teeth, and I would try to figure out why it was fun.”

But looking back on it, it’s just kind of sad. Clearly there is something wrong with Amy. Probably due to the way she was raised, but it has to run deeper than that. She actually is insane. A sociopath or something. She is smart and meticulous but has no real grasp on her emotions. Which is actually pretty good for her, since the only times she messes up are when those tiny shreds of humanity come out.

The Blank Space Where Amy's Sanity Should Be

After watching the Blank Space music video about a billion times, each time loving it even more all I can see is Gone Girl. It was on maybe my third viewing that I suddenly put together the connection between the Taylor Swift song and Gillian Flynn’s novel. I heard the lyric “Find out what you want, be that girl for a month,” and thought Oh my God, that‘s Amy. Amy has no set personality, instead changing herself to fit what other people around her want. Despite claiming she only became the “Cool Girl” for Nick, it is clear she has done it before to some extent with  Tommy O’Hara. Amy in the definition of a femme fatale. Just like Taylor in the video.

In the music video, after Taylor goes… well crazy, the guy basically stands there helpless as the dream world around him crumbles. This is what Amy does to Nick. He is helpless to stop her insane schemes and has no way out. She destroys his life. In Taylor's case beating his car with a golf club, throwing his phone in a pool, possibly killing him, but my favorite part is personally this: She throws his clothes off the balcony and they kind of just spontaneously combust. Sort of like how Amy makes practically everything Nick does blow up in his face.

Amy is crazy.  Absolute full on crazy. That’s the image Taylor portrays in her video.

But unlike Taylor, who is faking the insanity in a snarky nod to her critics, Amy is the real deal. She’s a jealous, scheming psycho.

So Happy

We all know the story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. They get married. Happily ever after right?
 

Wrong!

Murder, deceit, betrayal…these lurk just under the surface of even the most perfect marriage. At least that’s what we learn from a Domestic Noir book like Gone Girl. Domestic Noir, Suburban Noir, Chick Noir? Whatever you want to call it, it means the same thing: A seemingly perfect couple, but something goes wrong down the line. Maybe an affair but more likely (or at least in addition) a murder, a kidnapping, a dismemberment. A creepy dark atmosphere. And of course a disturbing plot twist. It’s what we (quite ironically) live for.   

Gone Girl is an intriguing example of this fascinating new genre. Amy and Nick. The perfect couple. Attractive and wealthy (at least for a while…) this should be a tale of their happy ever after. But something drastically wrong has happened in their marriage. Only we don’t know what. All we know is that Amy is gone. And who is the better suspect than the handsome, sexist, jealous, brooding, smiles at really bad times, husband. Suspense drives this novel forward. We just have to know what’s going on. Did Nick murder Amy? Who is Amy at all? Is she the devoted and determined wife we see in her diary entries? Or is she the manipulative and conniving woman that Nick portrays? In a marriage, especially one like Nick and Amy’s, it is almost impossible for anyone except those two people to grasp what is going in their relationship, and even they have different views. The book certainly has a creepy atmosphere in the unreliable nature of Nick's narration. As for the twist? Only time will tell, but I'm sure it will be deliciously awful. There are dark secrets yet to be revealed. And that just makes it, even more, a Domestic Noir story. The conflict lives close to home. A perfect couple that should be so happy instead are not. Among the two people that should place their trust in one another, lies and mayhem arise.