Orphan #8: A Novel

Story based on some history,combined with medical experimentation and attitudes that in current times are evolving. The author uses history and weaves a book that makes you want to find out what happens and why.

Well written and well researched novel of a Jewish orphanage in the 1930-40's in New York.A balanced look at some of the benefits for the children living there ,as well as, the sad truth of how some children were used in research by doctors looking to prevent children s diseases and health issues. The main character in the novel is an unfortunate victim of this research. Her life is forever changed for the worst; however, it shows her resourcefulness and perseverance to live her live to the fullest in-spite of the terrible scars of childhood.

I found the story very predictable and, as a former "boarder" I had trouble relating to all the excuses she used to do what she wanted. The
lesbian relationship was a faint attempt to add something to fill in the story line. It failed to help.

Wow, very well written and informative I love the historical facts and educational factors of the book. The only negative and downside was the ending kind of left you hanging and I really didn't care to read about The lesbian relationship that was involved, although it wasn't written as in your face.

Shocking story of orphans in asylum. Had no idea such places existed nor that the infants were used for medical experimentation. As the author suggests, I was immediately drawn into relating this treatment to the holocaust. Deeply moved by the story and the author's gift of words.

I devoured this book. Could not put it down. Beautifully told, haunting, and heartfelt. A tribute to humanity and the pain we endure and the life that we make. The best books are the ones you always remember. I’ll never forget this story!

I enjoyed this novel immensely as I found it psychologically complex, richly detailed, and riveting from start to finish. Kimvan Alkemade has shared a moving, often sad, often surprising, story with a masterful feel for language. Some plot coincidences are easily overlooked and forgiven in the sharing of Rachel's growth in accepting and understanding her often tortured self. Bravo! BRAVO!

I really liked this book, thought the storyline was very interesting. The only thing I did not like was that it just ended, suddenly, without any real closure. I turned the page, but that was it. That part of the book was very disappointing. It is too bad, because I really enjoyed the book except for that.

Heart-breaking episode in history of which I was unaware. Inspiring story of overcoming terrible life experiences and possibly even understanding the motives of those who did such harm. The planned revenge is understandable; the actual ending inspirational.

An interesting look into Jewish and orphaned life and medicine and the life and challenges of young lesbians across 2 wars in America. Well written. Interesting way of putting the past in third person and present in first so as to disconnect them. Some will find this distracting but I found it effective.

If you want to get emotionally attached to some children, you're in the right place. This book was beautifully written, the characters were extremely well planned out. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll cry some more. But you will enjoy it.

Absolutely loved this story the fact that it has some basis in truth made it all the more interesting. Since I'm from CO loved the CO references. Rachel the main character was likable and I do like that in a book.

It was difficult to put down and I really enjoyed the historical context. Although it is a fictional story, it is based in real events and some of the places and historical pillars are real. Great read!

Kim van Alkemade has written several articles in magazines that have been described as "creative non-fiction", whatever that may be. While researching her family genealogy, she came across a reference to a Medical Journal article that shocked her and she felt compelled to tell the story, but in a fictionalized novel. Some of the people in this book are actually real. Some are actually her relatives. While the girl, Rachel Rabinowitz and her brother Sam are works of fiction, what happens to Rachel, is not. This is an important book that raises questions about science and its practice, and whether you can forsake justified vengeance and forgive the unforgivable.

In 1919 the Jewish family, the Rabinowitzs, which consists of Harry, the father who works in a shirtwaist factory, who is saving for the chance to have his own contractor business, goes to Society meetings to make contacts, and is hoping to move his family up to the nicer neighborhood of Harlem; Visha, his wife, who wants another child and dreams of moving out of their three room tenement, where she looks after two borders and the two children, Rachel, four (who is known for her temper tantrums that only her brother can seem to stop) and Sam, six, who just started school. When Harry forgets his lunch, Visha and Rachel go to the factory, which Harry has forbidden them to do. When they return home, an angry Italian mother and her eighteen-year-old daughter show up at her house telling her that Harry, who met the girl at work, has been courting her daughter and has gotten her pregnant. It's hard to tell which ticks her off more: that her daughter is pregnant by a man already married or that he is really Jewish. Visha realizes that he has lied to her. There is no money being saved up. When he returns home, the two get into a fight and Harry accidentally cuts Visha's neck, in front of the two children. While she bleeds to death on the floor, Harry quickly packs up and runs away.

The children end up going to social services, where a nice woman is determined to find a foster home for them. Unfortunately, the two will have to be split up for now due to their ages, until she can find a home. Sam goes to the Hebrews Orphanage Home and Rachel goes to the Infant Hebrew Home. When she gets there, the social worker is told that Rachel will have to spend a month in isolation to make sure she does not have any diseases. This was 1919. Many of the diseases that we have vaccines for now, could kill children back then. A month later when the social worker returns with the news that a nice Jewish couple in Harlem is willing to take them both, she finds that Rachel now has both measles and conjunctivitis and will not be well enough to be taken in by this couple anytime soon, so she looks for another placement for the couple. The Infant Home would be seen as perhaps, hellish, to those of us today, and I have to admit it rather is. The nurses do not believe in touching the babies. Dr. Hess (a real person, who was the son-in-law of Strauss, the founder of Macy's, which is where the Home gets its money for fancy equipment) runs experiments on the children. He sees them as no better than lab rats, in that they are actual human subjects whose situations, such as home life, background, diet, etc...are the same and therefore variables can be controlled, which is a rarity in scientific research. Rachel's life changes when she meets Dr. Mildred Solomon a female doctor, an oddity of the time, who is there to do her residency and wants to run her own experiment, get published, establish herself, and get out of there.

This book goes back and forth between Rachel's past growing up and her present as a nurse in the Hebrews Home for the elderly. Rachel has many secrets. One is that she is a lesbian whose partner is away in Miami, for some unknown reason. When Dr. Solomon arrives on her floor, the hospice ward, terminally ill with bone cancer, she recognizes her and talks to her and finds out that she was a doctor at the Infant Home when she was there. She has always wondered what disease she had that necessitated some form of treatment. When she goes to the Medical Library she uncovers the horror of what happened in the Home and to her. She was "material # 8". She also discovers that because of that she is in grave danger of developing a serious disease that could kill her.

After leaving the Infant Home almost two years later, Rachel goes to the Hebrews Orphan Home, where she meets Mrs. Berger at reception, who works there while her son, Vic, is housed there. Vic's best friend just happens to be Rachel's brother Sam. While finally reunited, Sam has become hardened by his years in the Home where the bells ring constantly for every possible thing and the orphans respond like Pavlov's dogs sensing exactly when the bell is going to ring and making sure they are where they are supposed to be so they don't get slapped by the monitor (an orphan who is in charge of level and is usually two years older) or worse. There are 1000 kids in the home [my alma mater Catawba College, in Salisbury, NC, only had a little over 800 students and much more space], which is a large castle that takes up a whole city block in New York City. The book has a photograph of it. It may seem really bad, but actually, a state home is so much worse. At least here they receive dental care, medical care, three meals a day, and decent clothes and shoes to wear.

Sam, determined to look after his sister, bribes one of her monitors, Naomi, to look after her. Naomi gives her an "acceptable" nickname because it's better to pick what others call you then to have them call you something worse. Naomi is good to her and treats her almost like a friend and it's not just because Sam bribes her. The years pass and more things happen in Rachel's life, some good and some bad. [Reviewer's Note: a character in this book, Amelia, is given special treatment because she has long, beautiful red hair. I, too, have always have had long red hair, but I have not received special treatment for it. From fifth grade to middle school, I was teased for it, until I took a hardback book, corner-side pointed out, punched Scott Baker in the stomach with it. Guys wanted to date blondes, not red-heads. In college, I discovered men who felt differently, and I admit, that now, I am a bit vain about my hair. But I have never forgotten the teasing or the seeming obsession by the world for blondes].

This is an incredible book. Is Dr. Solomon a Dr. Mengele? She thinks a bit like him, but what she does (and Dr. Hess for that matter), while inexcusable, is nothing compared to what Mengele did. Rachel wants an apology, but it does not seem that she is going to get it. She is given an opportunity to work the night shift where it's just her and one other nurse and she has already been holding back on the amount of morphine she has been giving Solomon for days. Now she is in control. She has the power. She can cause Solomon to suffer and then kill her for what she has done to her. But is Rachel capable of such an act? Can she really do this? The question you find yourself asking is what would you do. And the answer is not an easy one.

Quotes
“You listen to me now,” Mrs. Giovanni said… “Nothing is your fault. Never think that again. God can see inside you, right into your soul, and He knows you did nothing wrong. Remember that, Rachel, if you ever feel alone or afraid.” Looking at the C-ray images, Rachel imagined this was what God saw when he looked at her. Where on the radiograph, she wondered, did it show right from wrong?
--Kim van Alkemade (Orphan # 8 p 90)
If good only came to those who deserved it, the world would be a bleak place.
--Kim van Alkemade (Orphan #8 p 336)

I really liked the characters and that this was based on facts about a girl in 1919 in NY City who was sent to a Jewish Orphanage.. Thousands of orphans lived in buildings full of beds until they were old enough to learn a trade or go out on their own..

An interesting book telling the story of a Jewish orphan in New York. Surprising to find out how this vulnerable population was used for experimentation and the human spirit's determination to make sense out of daily circumstances.

there were a few twists but fairly predictable. I enjoyed the book especially since it was based on real life events.
The ending regarding Orphan #8 as a nurse and the Doctor who experimented on her, gave the readers something to think about. Actually all the medical events at the orphanage I found quite interesting. Medicine has come a long way.

Very good book. Very sad. Once again people prove orphans are not important. It's difficult to understand this concept to use children as
Guinea pigs. It was like reading about the horrific acts the Germans performed on the Jewish children.

I enjoyed this book because of the interesting plot. Although it flipped around from present day to long ago, it told of the life of an orphan. This brought much attention to the plight of orphans and the abuse they endured.

It is difficult to read about the horrible conditions that were prevalent in the orphanages in those days.The things that were done to those poor defenseless children. It gives me goosebumps and sleepless nights.

Very good storyline. You can tell the author spent a great deal of time researching the background to build the plot. The only reason I did not give it a 5 star rating is I felt the ending fell a bit flat.

It’s sad to understand how much suffering there is in this world that could be avoided if only we stopped criticizing other people for the way they look and act. We never know how much that person is suffering and we don’t bother to offer our friendship.

Rachel is amazingly complex and human. This book flashes between her dark, dark, past and her current life. As you read you go on the journey with her and it is positively heart breaking. How can one person be treated so cruelly by life? All around her people make horrific choices that have a profound highly damaging impact on her life. Impressively, the author does an amazing job at fleshing out the rationale behind the dark actions. Every character has reasons for their actions, even if they are entirely inexcusable. So much exploration at the dark side of humanity, and how being driven toward a goal can lead to tunnel vision.

This was a very different perspective of a time period (WWII) which is written about often. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and felt like I knew the characters. It's an interesting storyline and well-written.

Excellent historical based novel. The testing on orphaned children is the protagonist of the novel that leaves life long physical, mental, and emotional issues for both the scientists and "guinea pigs" alike.

did not like children being used like that even back then. But these things happen and it brought reality.
I like the determination of the orphan. I would have liked the ending to be a little different.

A page turner. Another well written book set in an interesting period in our history. The discovery of radium, the two world wars, the interesting lives and culture of the Jewish people. I loved reading it.

Actually very informative about how orphans at least Jewish ones fared long ago. The main character is complex and not always so nice but she's tough and what she does is for her survival and love of her brother. Your emotions will get a workout.
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