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The Knife with the Ivory Handle
It is 1900. The story follows the fortunes of two orphan train riders, a black southern man the two children rescue, and a young priest who has to find his own way into emotional adulthood. From the first train as Annette and Jonathan cross the country to their adopters in Illinois farm country, to the final eruption into riot, fire, and murder in a coal mining town, dramatic tension sustains through alternating points of view. If you love psychological tension fused with plot action, this is the novel for you.
187 pages, Paperback
First published February 8, 2013
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10 people want to read
About the author
Cynthia Bruchman
2 books1 followerCynthia Bruchman considers Illinois, Virginia, and Arizona home. When she is not teaching English or History, she blogs and writes. However, the ultimate experience is traveling. She has escorted secondary students and families to foreign locales for twenty years with the hope they catch the travel bug.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 23, 2022
Thank you DartFrog, Lauren Becker, and the author for sending me this book.
R E V I E W:
This book was a very short read about two orphans who traveled to meet their adoptive parents when they met a wanted black man who was hiding in one of the boxes. This book was set during the 1900s; it was nice to travel back in time.
The author did a marvelous job making her readers empathize with the characters and the story. Despite the quick read, i was able to enjoy the flow of the story as well as the details of each scene. This book captures your attention from the very first page til the end. I highly recommend this to those who love historical and literary fiction.
R E V I E W:
This book was a very short read about two orphans who traveled to meet their adoptive parents when they met a wanted black man who was hiding in one of the boxes. This book was set during the 1900s; it was nice to travel back in time.
The author did a marvelous job making her readers empathize with the characters and the story. Despite the quick read, i was able to enjoy the flow of the story as well as the details of each scene. This book captures your attention from the very first page til the end. I highly recommend this to those who love historical and literary fiction.
July 31, 2022
The light flickered between the wooden slats as the train continued on its path. The rhythmic rocking nearly put her to sleep, but she had to stay alert and make sure her brother was okay. Her throat was dry and her lips were cracked; her stomach growled, but there was no food. A single tear escaped, but she brushed it away quickly… she had to remain strong.
The Knife with the Ivory Handle is set in 1900 and follows four different characters. Two characters, a brother and sister, are orphans heading to a new place to be with a new family. Another is a priest who is meant to take them to their new home. And the final character is a Black man who is running from his past and from men who are hunting him down.
I enjoyed getting a look into the historical setting of 1900 and reading about these characters as they tried to survive in their individual situations. One thing that did bother me in this book though, was the use of racial slurs to describe characters. I understand during this time period that these are the words used, but in a modern telling of this era… I just find it unnecessary, especially from a white author.
Overall this was a good historical fiction tale and the back of the book highlights where the author got her information from. So, you may enjoy this book if you’re a fan of historical fiction that is not WWII era and like multiple perspectives.
TW: Death, Murder, Physical Violence, Torture, Racism, Racial Slurs, Lynching, Stillborn Child.
The Knife with the Ivory Handle is set in 1900 and follows four different characters. Two characters, a brother and sister, are orphans heading to a new place to be with a new family. Another is a priest who is meant to take them to their new home. And the final character is a Black man who is running from his past and from men who are hunting him down.
I enjoyed getting a look into the historical setting of 1900 and reading about these characters as they tried to survive in their individual situations. One thing that did bother me in this book though, was the use of racial slurs to describe characters. I understand during this time period that these are the words used, but in a modern telling of this era… I just find it unnecessary, especially from a white author.
Overall this was a good historical fiction tale and the back of the book highlights where the author got her information from. So, you may enjoy this book if you’re a fan of historical fiction that is not WWII era and like multiple perspectives.
TW: Death, Murder, Physical Violence, Torture, Racism, Racial Slurs, Lynching, Stillborn Child.
March 22, 2015
In Cynthia Bruchman's debut novel, “The Knife with the Ivory Handle,” she weaves together a group of unlikely characters to create a rich and complex story.
Set in Illinois around 1900, the story begins with two orphans traveling via train to meet their adoptive parents. During the journey, they discover a black man hiding in one of the boxcars. Wounded, wanted by the law, he has to trust them not to divulge his presence to the authorities. The children make the decision to befriend him and so does the young priest sent to meet the orphans and escort them to their new home.
Bruchman does a fine job with making each of the characters compelling and sympathetic. Young Jonathan is a sensitive, creative boy with a gift for seeing beneath the surface of things. Artistic and bright, he senses the moods of others through keen observation and careful listening to the timbre of their voices. He is particularly attuned to the moods of his older sister, Annette, a secretive, ambitious girl who discovers she has a talent for healing and who dreams of being a doctor. Jonathan's sense of adventure and Annette's gift for healing is what draw them to Caspar, the wounded man hiding in the boxcar.
Annette reminds Caspar of a young white girl he once saw in passing. That girl, Amelia, is the unlikely source of all his secret longings. Caspar's fantasy life is a rich one, and at odds with his everyday reality as husband to good, solid Clementine and father to their son. I found this an intriguing aspect of Caspar's character. Besotted with dreams of a girl he'll never have, Caspar is dissatisfied with his life. This later changes; being on the run from the law makes him appreciate his family life more, and much of Caspar's story turns on his quest to reunite with his wife and son.
Father Kelly, initially a pretentious young man who hasn't seen enough of life to effectively minister to others, turns out to be a surprise. His experiences with the immigrant community he is asked to serve teach him empathy and compassion. So does the young woman who assists him in the community. She arouses feelings in him that perplex him and make him question his vocation.
“The Knife with the Ivory Handle” is not a lengthy book, coming in at less than two hundred pages. Even so, it's an absorbing story full of charm and multilayered characterization. Bruchman writes with assurance about North Central Illinois in the early 1900s. She provides just enough history to delight those who enjoy historical novels. For this reader, however, the novel's primary charm was the vivid characterizations. I won't soon forget the prickly Annette, or her sensitive brother, Jonathan. I developed a fondness for Father Kelly and Caspar, and appreciated the insights both men gained as the book reached its conclusion. The novel ends on a bittersweet note, and I wonder what life might have in store for young Jonathan, for the priest, and for the wanted man so desperate to reunite with his family.
I enjoyed the novel, and I look forward to reading more of Bruchman's work. Her sharply drawn characters and her adept story telling have left me hungry for further books. I'd say that's the hallmark of a first-class author.
Set in Illinois around 1900, the story begins with two orphans traveling via train to meet their adoptive parents. During the journey, they discover a black man hiding in one of the boxcars. Wounded, wanted by the law, he has to trust them not to divulge his presence to the authorities. The children make the decision to befriend him and so does the young priest sent to meet the orphans and escort them to their new home.
Bruchman does a fine job with making each of the characters compelling and sympathetic. Young Jonathan is a sensitive, creative boy with a gift for seeing beneath the surface of things. Artistic and bright, he senses the moods of others through keen observation and careful listening to the timbre of their voices. He is particularly attuned to the moods of his older sister, Annette, a secretive, ambitious girl who discovers she has a talent for healing and who dreams of being a doctor. Jonathan's sense of adventure and Annette's gift for healing is what draw them to Caspar, the wounded man hiding in the boxcar.
Annette reminds Caspar of a young white girl he once saw in passing. That girl, Amelia, is the unlikely source of all his secret longings. Caspar's fantasy life is a rich one, and at odds with his everyday reality as husband to good, solid Clementine and father to their son. I found this an intriguing aspect of Caspar's character. Besotted with dreams of a girl he'll never have, Caspar is dissatisfied with his life. This later changes; being on the run from the law makes him appreciate his family life more, and much of Caspar's story turns on his quest to reunite with his wife and son.
Father Kelly, initially a pretentious young man who hasn't seen enough of life to effectively minister to others, turns out to be a surprise. His experiences with the immigrant community he is asked to serve teach him empathy and compassion. So does the young woman who assists him in the community. She arouses feelings in him that perplex him and make him question his vocation.
“The Knife with the Ivory Handle” is not a lengthy book, coming in at less than two hundred pages. Even so, it's an absorbing story full of charm and multilayered characterization. Bruchman writes with assurance about North Central Illinois in the early 1900s. She provides just enough history to delight those who enjoy historical novels. For this reader, however, the novel's primary charm was the vivid characterizations. I won't soon forget the prickly Annette, or her sensitive brother, Jonathan. I developed a fondness for Father Kelly and Caspar, and appreciated the insights both men gained as the book reached its conclusion. The novel ends on a bittersweet note, and I wonder what life might have in store for young Jonathan, for the priest, and for the wanted man so desperate to reunite with his family.
I enjoyed the novel, and I look forward to reading more of Bruchman's work. Her sharply drawn characters and her adept story telling have left me hungry for further books. I'd say that's the hallmark of a first-class author.
August 25, 2015
A black man takes shelter in a train carriage amongst the animals. He has been shot and has no tongue. Two children are travelling from a Brooklyn orphanage to Illinois to start a new life on a farm. All three are on the same train. And so begins this lyrical tale of Illinois in 1900 which knits together the stories of Annette and Jonathan, Casper and priest Father Kelly.
It is clear from the first chapter that the author has intimate knowledge of this period in history. The Brooklyn orphanage is a real place on the page - the nuns, daily routine and quiet corridors - as is St Bede’s Abbey later in the book. The Spring Valley Race Riot of 1903 did happen, and the locations from Bureau, LaSalle and Kane Counties are real places. Cynthia Bruchman writes with confidence, placing her story and characters in a setting she researched for her Masters degree. But do not think I mean that the book is full of unnecessary historical detail, the research is not a heavy presence but colours the story of Annette, Jonathan, Casper and Father Kelly. It is the characters I care about.
Will Jonathan become an artist? What do the old woman’s cards of fortune mean and what does the future hold for Annette? Does Father Kelly’s destiny lie in the priesthood? And will Casper ever get home to his wife and son Clementine and Petey? There is just enough exposition to help us understand the characters, with enough left unsaid to create intrigue.
The children are particularly well-drawn. Jonathan knows his sister is hungry. “He knew all of her moods by observing her eyes and hands and feet. These parts expressed how she felt inside quite thoroughly, although she was unaware of it.” Annette and her brother were left at the orphanage by their father when she was four, their mother had died during childbirth. Annette tries to remember that day. “Her father rippled in her mind like a gray shirt on a clothes line.”
This is a period of American history of which I know little and I read this novel quickly. It is an intricate tale told with subtlety and enough twists to be surprising.
It is clear from the first chapter that the author has intimate knowledge of this period in history. The Brooklyn orphanage is a real place on the page - the nuns, daily routine and quiet corridors - as is St Bede’s Abbey later in the book. The Spring Valley Race Riot of 1903 did happen, and the locations from Bureau, LaSalle and Kane Counties are real places. Cynthia Bruchman writes with confidence, placing her story and characters in a setting she researched for her Masters degree. But do not think I mean that the book is full of unnecessary historical detail, the research is not a heavy presence but colours the story of Annette, Jonathan, Casper and Father Kelly. It is the characters I care about.
Will Jonathan become an artist? What do the old woman’s cards of fortune mean and what does the future hold for Annette? Does Father Kelly’s destiny lie in the priesthood? And will Casper ever get home to his wife and son Clementine and Petey? There is just enough exposition to help us understand the characters, with enough left unsaid to create intrigue.
The children are particularly well-drawn. Jonathan knows his sister is hungry. “He knew all of her moods by observing her eyes and hands and feet. These parts expressed how she felt inside quite thoroughly, although she was unaware of it.” Annette and her brother were left at the orphanage by their father when she was four, their mother had died during childbirth. Annette tries to remember that day. “Her father rippled in her mind like a gray shirt on a clothes line.”
This is a period of American history of which I know little and I read this novel quickly. It is an intricate tale told with subtlety and enough twists to be surprising.
August 2, 2013
This is the first novel of an English professor and am thoroughly enjoying the rich adventure in America, cira 1900. I discovered this book while reading the blog of another English teacher. On a lark, I clicked on the name of a blog commentor, Cynthia Bruchman, and found her own blog which contains the first chapter of this book online for all to read. I did and was hooked.
In the course of reading this book, I've run in terror with a wanted man just trying to reach his family, accompanied two children dismissed from a Brooklyn orphanage to a strange couple's farm in the midwest, wished the best for a young priest struggling with his vocation, and fretted over them all. Even the boy's dog and Father Kelly's horse are precious in their own reader's world way. Two chapters from the end, I set the book down for a few days, afraid to find out the fate of my favorite character.
Did I mention how beautiful the imagry flows? The chapter of the boy Jonathan's painting a canvas got everything right about the creative process of brush and pigment, while moving the plot along to a place that drew reader tears. Artists will appreciate this canvas of words.
This is a remarkable first novel, drawing on history, subplots, and well-drawn characters to tell a story much larger than the pages allow. You'll think about its theme long after the last page is turned. This is one of the best novels I've read this year.
In the course of reading this book, I've run in terror with a wanted man just trying to reach his family, accompanied two children dismissed from a Brooklyn orphanage to a strange couple's farm in the midwest, wished the best for a young priest struggling with his vocation, and fretted over them all. Even the boy's dog and Father Kelly's horse are precious in their own reader's world way. Two chapters from the end, I set the book down for a few days, afraid to find out the fate of my favorite character.
Did I mention how beautiful the imagry flows? The chapter of the boy Jonathan's painting a canvas got everything right about the creative process of brush and pigment, while moving the plot along to a place that drew reader tears. Artists will appreciate this canvas of words.
This is a remarkable first novel, drawing on history, subplots, and well-drawn characters to tell a story much larger than the pages allow. You'll think about its theme long after the last page is turned. This is one of the best novels I've read this year.
August 15, 2013
At first I was surprised that the book is under two hundred pages. I feared that the author would only skim the surface of the story and not delve too deep. Fortunately my hunch was wrong. Bruchman packs a lot of punch into a short amount of space. Yet the story never seems rushed. My other fear was that the descriptions would be lacking. Again, I was happy to find out I was wrong. She has vivid descriptions. One of the main characters is an artist and when Bruchman is describing him at work it’s like she’s using her words to paint a vibrant picture in the reader’s mind.
As a history nut, I enjoyed the bits and pieces of history that she included. Not once did I feel like she was info dumping. Instead she eased me into the time period via her characters. This is Bruchman’s debut novel and I have to say she’s off to a good start. Now I need to find out if she’s working on another novel.
As a history nut, I enjoyed the bits and pieces of history that she included. Not once did I feel like she was info dumping. Instead she eased me into the time period via her characters. This is Bruchman’s debut novel and I have to say she’s off to a good start. Now I need to find out if she’s working on another novel.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews