Lost And Found [Hardcover]

Marilyn Harris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 27, 1991

On Christmas Eve, 1930, in America's dust bowl, a young woman delivers her baby alone. Plain, warmhearted Martha Drusso takes the downy-haired infant she names Belle to raise as her own, along with another orphan in her care, a little boy named R.C.
But when Belle is three, her stepbrother mistakenly puts her on a train bound for Los Angeles, then leaves to get her a treat. The train takes off, and Belle is pitched into a child's worst nightmare: a series of orphanages and foster homes. When she is adopted into a loving Japanese-American family, it seems Belle's troubles are over -- until World War II breaks out. Never defeated, Belle is adopted again, and her beautiful singing voice ultimately leads her to Hollywood, and to love and marriage.
All the while, Martha and R.C. steadfastly continue to search for Belle. For thirty years they believe that the persistence of their hearts will bring their little family together again . . . .
"The power and integrity of Harris's prose turn this novel into something valuable." -- Atlanta Journal & Constitution

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Harris ( American Eden ) provides interesting social and historical background for what is essentially a fairy tale about a heroine in peril who eventually finds happiness and the key to the mystery in her life. After she is accidentally put on the wrong train in Tulsa, Okla., by her stepbrother, R.C., three-year-old orphaned Belle Drusso seems to vanish, despite all efforts to locate her by her devoted foster mother, Martha. Set during the 1930s Depression and a racially biased America in the '40s and '50s, Belle's misadventures are initially grim. Alighting from the train in California, she endures several months with dogmatic religious fanatics and survives a stint in a carelessly run orphanage. Fortune seems to smile on her in the form of loving Japanese-American foster parents, but with the advent of WW II, they are put into an internment camp. Later Belle witnesses the racial turmoil surrounding school integration in Little Rock, Ark. Meanwhile, guilt- wracked R.C. is obsessed with finding his sister, and he and Martha pool their wits and their savings in a series of futile searches. Harris's undemanding prose, her graphic rendering of a flawed social system cannot overcome the novel's serious flaws: Belle's intense and ultimately cloying sweetness, and the predictability of the plot.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Martha Drusso, an assistant in a Salvation Army mission in Tulsa, Oklahoma during the Depression, collects homeless children. She found R.C. with a note pinned to his shirt, and she takes in the baby, whom she names Belle, because she was present at her birth. When Martha has to return home to Texas for her mother's funeral, R.C. decides to follow her and, by mistake, puts Belle on the wrong train. The search for her is unfruitful and both Martha and R.C. spend the next three decades hoping to find Belle. Meanwhile, Belle is raised by a series of foster parents, some loving and some not. She experiences the horrors of the Japanese internment camps and is in Little Rock, Arkansas when the desegregation movement starts. This satisfying saga by the author of Eden Rising and American Eden should find a wide readership with its sympathetic characters and affecting scenes. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates.
- Janet Boyarin Blundell, MLS, Brookdale Community Coll., Lincroft,
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 438 pages
• Publisher: Crown; 1st edition (August 27, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 051758333X
• ISBN-13: 978-0517583333
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,611,531 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a very entertaining look at history and people., February 11, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Ontario, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lost And Found (Hardcover)

i am only halfway through lost and found, but i have not read a book like this, that is so very captivating -- it is also very informative -- telling about the war, the people of oklahoma, the treatment of the japanese during the war -- many good lessons on human respect -- and some very good sub-plots -- all dealing with people, life, and love ----and best of all, she doesnt feel (the author) like she has to interject sex to make the book interesting -----as i say, im only halfway through, but when i finish this one, i plan on reading the five "eden" books -----

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Roller Coaster ride!, February 18, 2009

By 

Amy Craig - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

I really enjoyed this book. It was quite the roller coaster ride, with exciting, frightening, joyful feelings... all throughout. I had a really hard time putting this book down...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful book, April 16, 2006

By 

true crime reader - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Lost And Found (Hardcover)

I loved this book A little girl gets on the wrong train & before her little brother can get her back off it leaves. He has no idea where the train went & they can't find her.

Ms. Harris is one of the greatest .