The Orphan Game: A Novel

by Ann Darby

"My parents died in a plane crash," one of us would say."My parents left me in a doghouse.""I am the daughter of the Queen of England, and you are the Prince of the Moon." This is the orphan game that Maggie Harris, her brother Jamie, and her sister Alison used to play when their troubled parents left them alone. Now these three must navigate not only their own fractured home life but the convulsive '60s as well. Set in Southern California, Ann Darby's debut novel juxtaposes domestic trauma against the relentlessly sunny backdrop of the suburban American dream--a dream, we soon learn, gone woefully awry. Jim Harris, a developer, is constantly sinking money into schemes that should make him rich but don't; his wife, Marian, barely keeps the family financially afloat working as a seamstress. Maggie, the oldest child, falls in love with her high school sweetheart, who is bound for Vietnam, and becomes pregnant. Before she can break this news, however, a fight erupts--with tragic consequences--and Maggie flees to the home of her mother's eccentric aunt, Mrs. Rumsen. Here she gradually realizes that even after you've blasted your life to smithereens you can still "gather up bits and pieces of the wrecked past and make something fine of them." Darby tells this story from several different perspectives; though Maggie is the main narrator, we also hear from her mother, Mrs. Rumsen, and occasionally her brother and sister as well. The Orphan Game draws a telling portrait of a family already in crisis, living in a nation on the brink of one. Though Vietnam looms in the background, in this novel, at least, the real battlefield is in the characters' own backyard. --Margaret Prior

Genres: Fiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published May 5, 1999

Reviews

[Charles Heiner · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The Orphan Game, a novel about a troubled teenage girl growing up in California during the Vietnam War, Ann Darby seamlessly melds a sense of isolation with a sense of claustrophobia, one example of this being how the girl, Maggie, and her family hide out in their different areas of the house, with her and her younger brother, Jamie, and younger sister, Allison, in their bedrooms, their mother Marian in her realms of the kitchen and the sewing room, and their father Jim in his spot on the living room couch, and secretly listen to each other through the walls. Every sound one makes effects the other members of the family, who infer something from it, usually correctly. They know each other's secrets, but they don't know what to do with them.

In this way, Maggie's family is not unusual. The parents know the kids are sneaking out at night, and have some pretty accurate guesses of what the kids are up to, even when they don't want to be right. The kids know their father's business is not doing as well as he would have them think it is, with their mother's handiwork being their main source of income.

Jim's bad investments, Maggie's careless sexual behavior, and Jamie's skateboard showboating show that striving for an imagined ideal is the cause of the family's suffering. Maggie's great-aunt, Jim's aunt, Mrs. Rumsen, does not have the same striving behavior. Widowed, and having gracefully given up a dancing career from her youth, she is now happy to hang photographs of famous dancers she has never met on her walls and collect old knickknacks from places like the Salvation Army store. When Maggie becomes pregnant, and Jim is too self-absorbed and Marian too emotionally overwhelmed to handle the situation, Mrs. Rumsen is the only person levelheaded enough to take care of her.

The multiple first person point of view allows the story to move between three generations. Mrs. Rumsen, the oldest narrator, has memories of Jim's disapproving father that illuminate the men's relationship in ways they would not understand. Marian, trying to absolve herself of blame for her children's problems, compares herself favorably to her own insecure, alcoholic mother. Maggie, as a single mother, describes a kind of motherhood Marian would not understand. Throughout is the contrast between how the characters are close together and how they're far apart.

Maggie's relationships with her younger siblings are fully developed and believable. Jamie, who constantly draws on a sketch pad he carries with him, gets her to play his own embellished version of the game hangman. He is the only one in the family who has any hopes for her relationship with her older boyfriend. By the end of the story, Allison, the youngest, angry and unforgiving of Maggie's mistakes, begins to show her own troubled behavior. The way the thread of children's art is carried through to the ending, with the art's themes of life and death, ties the story together in an unexpected way while leaving the characters open for further development in the reader's imagination.

[Tami DuBow`` · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s really more like 3.75 stars. This book perplexes me. I’m not sure I understand it’s goal. I almost didn’t finish it. Although I was absorbed as I read, I didn’t NEED to keep reading. It felt like it actually started 3/5 of the way through. I like chapters from different viewpoints- this book had a good hand of the book from Maggie’s perspective, then started changing it up more and more until in the end there were different voices every few paragraphs. The ending wasn’t satisfying. The chapters around Jamie’s death were the most consistent, long and heart wrenching. I’m not sure if it’s my increased sensitivity now during COVID and insurrections, and having a teenager about to launch... that’s probably a lot of it, but those parts really got to me.

[Janet Ramski · Rating 3 out of 5]

The characters in this story seen to float from one situation to the next, equally unhappy with circumstances and each other. The only one I really liked was Aunt Evelyn, who found joy and purpose in her life, no matter where she was. Do people really just react, without thinking about their actions? No, I suppose that's unfair. They were all just trying to do their best, and Maggie was a fairly typical 16 year old, ignoring and uncaring about the larger world and feeling that her life problems were all that mattered. I was glad to see that she was growing up, with the help and example of her bohemian aunt.

[Les · Rating 2 out of 5]

My Original Thoughts (1999):

An ok read, but nothing special. Just enough to keep me interested and finish the book, but not by much.

My Current Thoughts:

I suspect it was the Southern California setting that appealed to me, but apparently that wasn't enough to make for a great read. I don't remember the plot or the characters and I'll bet it was something I stumbled upon at the library.

[Joanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

My objection to this book was the explicit sexual episodes. The characters didn't seem to have any morals. I really didn't like any of the characters. I skimmed through a lot of the dialogue regarding the father. I did finish the book. The ending was not satisfactory.

[Lynne Block · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thumbs down

[Angelina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Undecided between a 3 and 4 stars. Really enjoyed the writing style and slow paced narrative of the book. Found the one main plot twist to be very surprising but added a new perspective on characters to the novel. Didn't love the relationship between Margaret and Bruce but saw it's point in the narrative. Found the title to be totally unrelated to the book until reading the blurb on the back again, not the best choice in my mind. Would read more by Ann Darby.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Darby writes very precisely, piling up clauses of visual imagery so that you can really see what she's writing about. The problem for me was that the characters weren't very interesting people. I didn't particularly want to know them. However, the book is interesting enough so that I read it through and I was genuinely touched by the events at the end.

[Carol Strickland · Rating 5 out of 5]

This coming-of-age novel set in southern California in the 1960s makes the period and the people come alive. I cared deeply about the characters, who are fully realized, their lives described in clear and precise prose. The book has a forceful emotional impact. I hope another novel by the author will soon be forthcoming.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok. Kind of slow. Doesn´t really get as far into character´s life as it leads you to believe early on. Changes perspectives a few times but not consistently so made me wonder what the point was. Good characters, slow plot.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the quirky characters! Usually don't love foreshadowing, but it did sort of work here, as did jumping around in time time.

Did NOT love gratuitous tragedy.

Would read other things by Ann Darby.

[Laura Smyth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this novel. Very evocative. Characters that stay with you.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I didn't really empathize much with any of the three women characters, their problems were interesting in the backdrop of a small town in the 60's.

[Kate]

Read too long ago to rate.