The Orphan's Tale: A Novel by
Pam Jenoff
My rating:
1 of 5 stars
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This is the tale of two circus performers. Astrid/Ingrid grew up flying trapeze in her family's circus. She is tasked with training Noa, a teen who has been thrown out of her phone and finds refuge for herself and a Jewish baby she rescued from a boxcar. This is the story of their relationships - with each other, with others, and with the circus itself.
I know I am the unpopular opinion on this book. And I'm okay with that. Perhaps I was expecting too much. I like to read WWII books as there are so many facets of that time period beyond just the Holocaust (no offense meant as that was horrific and should be written about and discussed prolifically to keep it at the forefront of our public consciousness). And the idea that circuses helped hide Jews during the war was interesting. I've yet to read a book about circuses in that time frame. I hadn't even considered they'd existed in a time of war.
I think I would have loved the main story of Astrid. However, I had very little patience for Noa and her continued poor decision making, it seems like at almost every turn. Seriously. Love at first site and soul mates and sacrifice everything and everyone around you? Girl, get your priorities straight and be just a little aware of the potential consequences of your actions! She "thinks" all the time about the loyalty and protection she owes Astrid; yet most of her choices disregard that. The ancillary characters of Herr Neuhoff and even Peter I could sympathize with more than Noa.
Also, I found the title to be a bit of a misnomer. Who is the orphan that it is the tale of? I mean, maybe Astrid? Theo? The circus as a whole?
I didn't fully buy into Astrid's reason to visit the circus display in the prologue and epilogue. To just check the box? I would have bought into it more if she was wanting to be there for pure nostalgia.
From a historical standpoint, it was lacking some key details, I felt. For example, the only gypsy (Roma) mentioned is a fortune teller who only shows up at the circus during the peak season. I would think in a circus environment gypsies would have as much of a shelter as Jews would. Especially since they were rounded up, sent to camps, and murdered as well. But perhaps I'm wrong in my connection of gypsy and circus.
My even bigger issues were all the discrepancies. I will outline just a few of the more glaring ones below (hence marking the review as having spoilers). Most were at the beginning of chapters.
--Ch. 11: In the second paragraph, it says Astrid's mind goes back to the previous night's performance when a colleague of her ex-husband attended the show "at its very first performance." But the start of Ch. 10 said it has been two days since their first show.
--Ch. 13: Paragraph 3 starts with "The previous night when Noa had gone in the ring without me." Which was the same night that the police arrested the dad. However, on the next page it says the police interrupted their show a few days earlier.
--Ch. 16: Astrid starts to walk from the train car, not looking in the mirror, to head to the meeting. Dose she then stop? Because it doesn't mention that at all. But all of a sudden she's pulling out her valise to put on some makeup before the meeting. Then it says she starts out from the train again.
--There's some general confusion around the timing of the wedding. it was on a Sunday afternoon according to Ch. 16. Noa sneaks off to be with Luc during the wedding festivities. They return to the wedding festivities turned arrest - so assuming it's still that night. In fact, at the end of Ch. 19 Noa tells Luc's father that Herr N. had died that night. Ch. 20 starts with the funeral being the next day. So the day after Sunday is Monday. There's also mention at some point of the circus being cancelled that night, but they don't perform on Sundays and it was already the middle of the night when they were saying to cancel. So would that have been Monday night, and now it's Tuesday that the funeral is actually on Tuesday? Somehow we lost a whole day then.
--Ch. 20 starts with, as mentioned, the funeral taking place the "next day" after the wedding. But then the next page said that Astrid was starting her life with Peter a few days ago. The page after that has Noa lamenting that she hasn't seen Luc since the night of Peter's arrest...which was just the night before!
--Ch. 24: A lot of remorse from Noa about her plan to leave and not telling Astrid. But what would be the point of telling Astrid since Astrid was to leave first?
--Luc tells Noa to meet him at the far side ravine on the far side of the quarry. After two close readings, it seems to me she waits for Luc in the quarry as she mentions walking down in and looking at the brush at the far en of the quarry.
--The epilogue implies that Noa & Luc used the belly box to exchange notes on multiple occasions instead of just once.
This book would have benefited from a better editor. I honestly checked my copy more than once to insure it wasn't an ARC (not fully edited advanced review copy). A small part of me thinks maybe the author was trying for an unreliable narrator (or two in this case), but I really don't think so.
All in all, a disappointing read for me. It's more of a 1.5 stars for me.
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