The Orphan's Daughter

by Jan Cherubin

A father’s boyhood experience of abandonment shadows his fraught relationship with his daughter in this novel.

Cherubin’s book braids together three narratives exploring the life of a Jewish family in New York and Baltimore from the 1920s to the ’80s. One follows Joanna Aronson as she cares for her father, Clyde, during his latest struggle with cancer while butting heads with her stepmother, Brenda, a cold woman whom Joanna suspects of neglecting him and even trying to kill him. Interspersed are Joanna’s memories of growing up in suburban Baltimore with her sister and parents in the ’60s, a life that seems idyllic yet seethes with subterranean discontents. Clyde, an English teacher, dominates the family with his charisma but undermines it with his affairs, including a liaison with one of Joanna’s teenage acquaintances. Joanna’s mother, Evie, feels trapped in housewifery and longs for the fulfillment she felt as a Communist Party activist. Joanna, though drawn like Clyde to the life of the mind, feels slighted because of his wish that she had been a boy. A colleague of her father’s seduces her at age 14. Threading through the story is Clyde’s memoir of growing up with his brother, Harry, in New York’s National Hebrew Orphan Home after his father abandoned the family and his mother placed the two boys there in 1924. It’s a Dickensian story of cold, hunger, loneliness, frequent beatings, and sexual abuse, but it’s lit with friendships and intellectual ambitions. Cherubin’s bittersweet tale is an epic and indelible character study of Clyde from frightened cub to kvetching lion in winter, with overtones of King Lear and an occasional queasily incestuous vibe. She writes in evocative prose that mixes astringent reality with glowing reverie. (“I sized up the three agents,” recalls Evie of a visit from the FBI during the Joseph McCarthy era. “Cold, smug, and bored. They could not begin to understand how alive I was during the war, how urgent and meaningful my life was thanks to the CP. How engaged I was with the world… I still miss those days.”) As Joanna grapples with her clan’s vexed legacy, the author shows how both betrayal and forgiveness can propagate across generations.
An alternately dark and luminous, wounded and affectionate portrait of a family in crisis.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction

394 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2020

About the author

Jan Cherubin grew up in Baltimore and received her B.A. in English literature from Bennington College in Vermont. The Orphan’s Daughter is her debut novel. She was once a fact checker at New York magazine, a staff writer at the New York Daily News and an editor at Seventeen Magazine. After moving to Los Angeles, she became a style writer for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, and later, a playwright and standup comic. She has had plays in Ensemble Studio Theater L.A.’s Winterfest, and has performed standup at the Hollywood Improv and The Ice House. She returned to Bennington in 2006 and earned an MFA in fiction from the Bennington Writing seminars. She has taught writing at Santa Monica College and in her long career as a student, she studied writing with Bernard Malamud, John Gardner, Barry Hannah, Jill McCorkle, Alice McDermott, Charles Baxter, Amy Hempel, and Mona Simpson. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Vermont Studio Center.

Reviews

[Chip Keyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

After finishing a really good novel, you feel like you’ve been given access to experiences your own life could not provide. As the same time, in a really good novel, you also feel the universality of human experience, the DNA of human life we share. THE ORPHAN’S DAUGHTER is a really good novel, the best I’ve read in some years. It tells the story of two lives. Clyde Aronson (the orphan of the title) and his baby boomer daughter Joanna. Clyde grows up in the Great Depression, serves in WWII and courts his future wife (Joanna’s mother Evie) by letter during the war. Post war, they wed and raise two daughters in the suburbs of Baltimore. Joanna writes of her youth in a relatively happy 1950s nuclear family. She loves her distinctive and challenging parents (Evie is a devout communist) but also realizes--in those less-enlightened times-- she will never be the son her father wanted. And will never be given certain access. That simple fact limits their relationship yet makes her hunger for more closeness. When her father, long remarried, falls ill, Joanna flies in from LA to help her indifferent step-mother take care of Clyde, and Joanna becomes closer to her father. The book opens after Clyde’s funeral, as the police come to arrest Joanna. Clyde’s second wife was jealous of the ongoing closeness Clyde, Evie and their girls shared, so she spitefully denies Joanna access to Clyde’s pictures, letters and written memories. Joanna, as intrepid and honest a narrator as one might ask for, steals back her father’s life from the house she grew up in. (Which is why Brenda has called the cops.) That human, familial struggle frames the novel, but the heart of this moving book is Joanna excellently telling her father’s story and her own, coming to know her father more deeply by doing so. Jan Cherubin excels at weaving together two distinct voices and two interconnected lives. I highly recommend this book.

[Lynne DeWitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was attracted to this book because my parents grew up in Baltimore in the same era as this story takes place so I was naturally curious. I am a painfully slow reader but gobbled this up in 3 days. I could not put it down. Like the best stories, this one is painful and heartwarming at the same time. It rang true in so many ways. I love the way Cherubin plays with the narrative, alternating between the father and the daughter, purposefully causing the reader enough confusion to appreciate how much these two shared. Lots here to make you laugh. . .and cry. If there is one book that will get me back into reading, this may be it.

[Gay Daly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Often I read a book and enjoy it, but a month later when someone asks me what the book was about I can't remember even though I'm sure I'm still enthusiastic about the book. But I will never forget The Orphan's Daughter. The daughter's deep longing for her father to see her, to recognize who she is and what she needs is painful in the extreme; the reader cannot help but feel close to her and to root for her to get the love every child needs. But once the reader learns of the traumatic experiences her father endured as a child--and over which he triumphed where most children would have been crushed--it becomes clear that the father's inability to give his daughter what she needs grew out of the necessity of denying his own feelings and needs when he was young. Ultimately, Cherubin helps the reader to forgive both daughter and father their anger and the pain they inflict on each other. But this isn't just a sad book--it's also very funny. The author has a wonderful sense of humor and of the absurd--when you reader her book I suspect you may cry but I am sure you will laugh--a lot.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really thought I’d like this book based on the description a s all the glowing reviews, but found it to be long and confusing with all the time shifts. And I didn’t really connect with or even like any of the characters. I found myself clicking through a lot in the second half just to finish it.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a story that tugged at my heartstrings. As luck would have it, this novel takes place partly in Yonkers (I grew up there) and many of the locations that are mentioned had me walking down memory lane.

The time frames of the work are the 1920's, 1950's and 1980's.The 1920's formed the character of the orphan, Clyde Aronson and subsequently one of his daughters, Joanna was particularly needful of his love. Clyde is the object of Joanna's love but he is a complex man who is loving and withholding to all the women in his life.

This novel portrays dysfunction with a loving edge. None of the characters are perfect and yet each is somewhat loveable. Ms. Cherubin lets the character's humanity shine through. The denouement was not as satisfying as I hoped it would be but the novel held my interest from first page to the last.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jan Cherubin writes beautifully about life as a daughter of a dynamic yet troubled father. Her book held me in its grasp at the first line and I only grew more gripped with each chapter. At times, this book is humorous, and at others times, heart-wrenchingly moving. It deals with what it means to love a flawed parent and also the hard work of finding ones own worth and authentic life in the wake of a difficult upbringing which, of course, continues to unravel into adulthood. The place descriptions are so evocative that her childhood home becomes another character in the story and Cherubin's structuring of this book is commanding and original. The characters are believable, vulnerable and unique people like all of us. A courageous and an honest life- and love-affirming novel that captures all the messiness and confusion that sometimes also strengthens us.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

From its opening paragraph, in which the titular daughter Joanna -- now grown up and armed with a leg of lamb -- outwits her resentful stepmother and a menacing dog to break into her childhood home and repossess her late father Clyde's youthful writings, this book is irresistible. Joanna is as smart as she is hilarious and acerbic. The reader definitely feels her pain as Joanna struggles with her charismatic and boyish-to-a-fault father, who had hoped for a boy when his daughter was born and does not hesitate to say so during Joanna's youth. Clyde -- a popular high school teacher -- in the hedonistic Sixties and Seventies misbehaves atrociously during Joanna's teen-age years, profoundly injuring her in the process. Maddeningly, Clyde's narcissism and simple old-fashioned sexism seem to propel him ever-upward as they baffle and thwart Joanna, who the reader roots for through it all. The book is filled with infuriating, hilarious and unforgettable scenes, including the Baltimore Police Department's pursuit of Joanna following the break-in that kicks off the novel. As I read, I could not stop asking myself why the savvy and normally outspoken Joanna did not call her father on his casual, but devastating cruelty. Cherubin ultimately answers that question brilliantly with a mind-blowing, tear-jerking scene in which the theme from Chariots of Fire scene plays a critical role. I highly recommend this novel.

[Camille Giordano · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a page-turner that I didn’t want to end. I enjoyed hearing about the descriptions of New York and particularly Westchester County from the 30s. The whole world of an orphanage was fascinating as well, and I found myself wondering if today’s foster care system is really any better. Jan’s storytelling ability is remarkable and it made me feel like I really got to know the characters. I am looking forward to another book by this author!

[Sandy Boothe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the structure of this book--switching from the father's experiences in an orphanage in the '20s and '30s to the "paradise" of suburban Baltimore in the 60s, to the more recent caper that involved stealing back what was rightfully the daughter's heritage. The different settings propelled the story in a glorious fashion that made it hard to put down. The writing was cinematic, spiteful, haunting, hilarious, and mournful. What a great read.

[James DeWitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. If you are a fan of the memoir, this is up there with the best. It is a masterful description of time and place (the events unfold in depression era Baltimore). The storytelling is raw and unsentimental, hysterically funny and the cast of characters are every bit as nuanced and complicated and exasperating as the people who inhabit our own lives. Not a plot driven story by design but somehow still a page turner. A very satisfying read. Enjoy!

[Chloë Director · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a page-turner! It’s emotional and brilliantly written. Highly recommend.

[Sarah Steinberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic story. A real page-turner. Full of rich characters. I gobbled the book up in two days.

[Sylvia Jacobs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Title: The Orphan’s Daughter

Author: Jan Cherubin

Genre: Jewish Literature & Fiction

Pub Date: June 15, 2020

Print Length: 416 pages


Named to Kirkus Reviews as the best book of 2020. I totally agree. This is an amazing book in each and every way!


Book Reviewed By Sylvia J.

Ruth Aronson’s husband Isaac left her and her five infant children on July 18, 1924. he hasn’t communicated with them or left them any financial support. Unfortunately, Ruth decided to leave her eldest children, which were her two boys Harry and Clyde in an orphanage. She occasionally brings her two sons home, but it isn’t that often, afterwards she returns them back to the orphanage.

There are two stories going on in the book. The first story is the story of the orphanage. The second story is when Clyde is older and he becomes sick and his daughter is taking care of him. She speaks about how her father Clyde didn’t really care too much for her when she was growing up as a child. When he got sick, he seemed to have some interest in her.

This book will show anyone that reads it that the way you were raised as a child has so much to do with your life, your values, how you treat and respect others and so much more. Your upbringing teaches you how to treat other people. Since Clyde grew up in an orphanage and was treated very poorly in the orphanage, he had no idea how to raise a family properly. Since he didn’t have much of a mother mothering him he didn’t know how to be a good father.

This book is quite detailed. You will be sucked in from the very first page and to the very last page. You will feel bad for the daughter of the orphan named Joanna, who only wanted to be loved by her father. Her father definitely suffered from abandonment issues. This is definitely one book I will not forget. Five stars is my rating.

[Gr8Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a first book?!?!?!?!? I was fully engrossed in the 3 stories this book told. At times when Cherubin left the telling of Clyde's growing up at the HNOH to pick up one of the other threads, I found myself thinking about what happened next at the HNOH. While reading about Clyde becoming ill, I found myself wanting to yell at Joanna to do more, push more to find out more. My hear went out to Joanna as parts of her childhood came to light. I came to feel for these characters - for Clyde for what he grew up with and what he was going through. I loathed Brenda.

Cherubin's descriptions of the HNOH were chilling at times. But you also got a sense of the "we're in this together" attitude of some of the kids. And the nicknames, the ones that stayed with each kid for the rest of his life......

A great read.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book with many similarities of my life

I thoroughly enjoyed this book for so many reasons. My parents were the age of Joanna’s parents and I am the same age as Joanna. The story takes place mostly in Baltimore where I lived for over 60 years and therefore could picture all the streets, the funeral home, the houses, my old high-school, etc. vividly while reading. Most of all the characters rang true to me with their changes from childhood to adulthood, with their actions and realistic personalities and characteristics, both good and bad.

[DebbieG · Rating 3 out of 5]

At times I wasn't sure I would finish this one. The story is dense with imagery and heavy on relationships. This was chosen for me and is one I probably would not have picked on my own. The cover is not appealing to me, and I do judge the book by the cover! Since I read print-on-paper books (I'm not a digital reader), the cover and synopsis both have to appeal to me before I'll even pick it up.

[Mary Engen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the book engaging and enjoyed the characters. The stories about the orphanage and the depression times was interesting and shows the resilience of children and their need for love. The family also illustrates the generational trauma that happens when people don’t have their needs met growing up.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book I found on a "Little Free Library" tells the story of Joanna who is struggling to resolve her relationship with her father who is nearing the end of his life and due to hard times during the depression, grew up in an orphanage.

A slow read, but interesting characters.

I plan to donate this book to another "Free Library" on my next walk about town.

[Becky Plankenhorn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is missing the rising action in the plot. And therefore is not followed up with an intriguing climax. I kept reading hoping to find something that would excite me to want to find out what will happen next, but it just wasn’t there for me.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard about this book via one of my facebook book pages and was intrigued. It was well written and an interesting, complex story. The Hebrew National Orphan Home was a real place, and there must be many more stories to tell from the experiences there.

[Douglas Steinberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. Great story, great characters, great writer. And so funny and touching. A seamless page turner. Thumbs way up for Ms. Cherubin.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story about a father/daughter relationship and the lengths people go to for their approval. A little long and sad.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good story and a bit different. Childhood trauma, friendly or odd divorce, estates, and more all in one told between a daughter taking care of her dying father and his childhood in an orphanage.

[Toby Rosen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good story and one which was worth the read. The part about the Jewish Orphanage was quite heartbreaking but the way it was described and the positive spin was very absorbing.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read! Such depth of story-telling and rich prose. All of the characters felt so real. The main protagonist Joanna, with all of her complexities and inner struggles is working toward resolving her relationship with her father Clyde -who grew up in an orphanage- as his life nears an end. This book is consistently good ( nothing to speed read or skip) and never loses steam. Highly recommended.

[Kobe Masuoka · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and did not want it to end. The characters were rich and well-drawn - the dialogue flowed naturally. The author’s deft hand told two stories that moved effortlessly back and forth with a beautiful and touching through line. It is witty, painful, heartfelt and memorable - definitely a “good read!”