Customer Reviews

The Orphan Game: A Novel

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just deleted the three paragraphs I had written about this book. It seems as if to tell anything about this story is to tell too much. It needs to tell itself -- I guess, that's why it was written. (But it's AMAZING -- READ IT)

WARNING: If reading further Customer Comments, don't read the one posted June 1, 1999 -- it gives away an important element.

The Orphan Game was an interesting portrayal of American life during the early 1960's, before the societal shift of that era really occurred. Two fundamental themes are developed through the two central, and most-developed, characters of this book. Maggie, a 16-year-old, becomes pregnant just as her boyfriend ships off to Vietnam. She must grow up fast, and learn to deal with life on her own, without her family. Her father, Jim, is obsessed with the American dream and making life good for his family. These two characters obviously come into conflict, and it is through this conflict that Maggie eventually develops her own voice, outside of her family and her boyfriend.

Darby's writing is phenomenal, and the writing dense and evocative. Overall, the book is well recommended.

I started this book slowly, but at about midpoint in the novel I couldn't put it down.

It is a story about one teenage girl and her family in 1965 California. The author captures the time excellently. It is also the story of a family and the trials and tribulations every family faces. I was quite surprised at some of the plot twists.

I really liked this book and the only thing keeping me from giving it 5 stars is the fact I would have liked a more in depth character development of all the key players. It was an excellent read though and I would read another by Ann Darby.

This book really took me back to growing up in the '60's. The specter of the Viet Nam War, yet to come, hovers on the edges of things like the forest fires burning in the foothills - a constant threat. Maggie is really a child of the '50's, but is plunged into emerging Southern California social changes. In some ways, the book reminded me of Jayne Ann Phillip's, Machine Dreams. Bruce, Maggie's teen boyfriend who enlists, seemed not a fully developed character.

One of the best books of this or any other year, Ann Darby's "The Orphan Game" seems destined for some of the literary communities top honors. At once haunting, compelling and ultimately redemptive-"The Orphan Game" seems to find a place in our minds that, once there, it refuses to leave. Ann Darby gives us a much needed dose of hope for the future of literature.

I love a novel that tells a great story, especially when I find bits of wisdom tucked between the lines. I love finding a new author who can make me FEEL. I'll never forget Maggie. The scene where the kids play Hangman in the car while their parents fight is pure agony jumping off the page. You can smell the smoke from the fire in this book. Also the smoke from Darby's writing that burns up the pages. More. More. More.

A beautifully written and fully realized portrait of the Harris family in California in the early sixties, a conservative milieu, at the cusp of real social change. I thought the best character was the father: a businessman scheming of wealth, and saddled with debt. He leaps off the page, all his frustration and fury placed in a broad context, amid drought-ridden California hills spouting developments and highways. And then there's Bruce, a boy who puts CLEAN SHEETS on a bed, dreaming of the Army. I loved this book.

Ann Darby is an accomplished writer who captures one's emotions through an engaging style and a powerful story. She writes of a teenage girl's struggle for sense and freedom from a family stretched to its limits. Ann Darby's prose is simply brilliant. She writes with structure and clarity that is rare in this time of speedily written, puffed up fiction. A wonderful novel.

Darby's description of aching teenage love is right on. And no one evokes a truer feel for the intense and raging despair experienced by the survivors of a tragic teenage death. A truly fine book.

If you are looking for a good book to sit down with at the end of a long day, or simply on a weekend when you want to enjoy the spring air outside, The Orphan Game is the book for you. The characters created by Ann Darby are people you will instantly be intrigued by. The Harris family is similar in some way or another to people you know--and it may remind you of the dreams and struggles you've had during your life. I trust like myself, you won't want this book to end.