Orphan Number Eight, Kim van Alkemade, author, Andi Arndt, narrator
Although the story begins in a tenement apartment in which a gentle, loving mother and wife, Visha, is forced to submit to her husband Harry’s inappropriate sexual demands, it swiftly moves to the abandonment of their two children, Rachel and her brother, Sam. After Visha’s sudden death, Harry, runs away rather than face his responsibilities. The children are placed in separate orphanages because of their ages. Sam is 6 and Rachel is 4. Although some of those in authority were kindhearted and attempted to do the right thing by placing the children together, they failed, further exacerbating their awful situation.
Rachel is placed in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum where she is subjected to various unnecessary tests and is used as a research subject, of course without anyone’s permission. Sam is placed in another facility where he bristles at the regulations and the discipline, becomes headstrong, and as he grows older, also grows more and more independent. They are finally inadvertently reunited, but the negative effects of their internment follow them throughout their lives. Sam is more affected mentally and emotionally. He eventually fights in WWII and settles in Israel, finding a cause to fight for and a family to love. Rachel’s problems are more physical and they follow her until middle age when our book leaves us to ponder what happens to her. She also finds love, but in an alternate, unacceptable lifestyle at that time. Rachel’s passage from childhood to middle age occupies most of the narrative, along with her long standing lesbian love affair with Naomi, a fellow resident in the orphanage.
The story about the economic conditions of the times, the helplessness of the families unable to lend the necessary support to those in need, and the conditions, discipline and lack of warmth shown to the orphans of all ages was heartbreaking, but the story about the abuses that took place was horrifying. Many youngsters felt forced to run away, to begin their lives alone, dangerously, far too early, in order to escape from their environment, an environment that while it may have enforced obedience, also alternatively sometimes encouraged fighting back as the only weapon against their feelings of powerlessness. It also sometimes created little thieves and liars. The children were treated more as prisoners than as unfortunate homeless children.
How could the medical professionals stand by and allow these things to take place, to aid in the use of human subjects, innocent children, forcing them to participate in experiments regardless of the discomfort or long lasting effects that might occur? How could the do-gooders of the Synagogue turn a blind eye to the deprivation and suffering they witnessed? These children were already sad and helpless; to take further advantage of them shows the depths of depravity some people might descend to without oversight or investigation. Was justice served by Sam or Rachel’s behavior, finally, or did it just serve to provide them with a means of revenge? Was Rachel’s illness evidence of the fact that there is no justice in this world? Is Dr. Solomon’s suffering her just desserts? What about the Nazi soldier? Was he truly responsible for Hitler’s march of horror across Europe, or in both cases was it the unjust system they served that ultimately deserved judgment? Is extracting vengeance a theme in this book or is viewing the early morning sunrise a message for the reader of the eternal opportunity for hope?
As the timeline moved back and forth, we followed Rachel as she grew from a 4 year old desperate child to a desperate woman entering middle-age, living an alternate lifestyle and facing traumatic illness. The book shines a light on the difficulties same sex couples faced before their unions were recognized. Those injustices are now, hopefully, resolved. Whether or not the reader agrees with the rulings on same sex marriage, the reader will be forced to acknowledge the loneliness and ostracism that they unfairly experienced because they loved someone society would not accept. They will also be forced to acknowledge that hospital and inheritance rules were unfair and should have been changed long ago. No one should die alone because there is no living relative to stand by and support them. No one should have to forego the benefits due them for frivolous reasons made up by a society choosing to remain blind to their suffering and their needs, because they object to them; no one should be abused! Just as she was abused as a child in the orphanage, society continued to abuse her into adulthood by frowning again on her style of life.
I did not enjoy the narration of this book. The reader did not know how to pronounce many of the Jewish words and should not have been chosen because of that. Either the author and/or the reader did not know the correct pronunciation or it was simply ignored. An example of an offense was the pronunciation of the term minyan, correctly defined, but pronounced as minYON, emphasis on the second syllable instead of the first, and as if the second syllable rhymed with on rather than men as it is in the correct pronunciation of MINyan, accent on MIN.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaaaMLAvcpw
In addition, the promo material should have mentioned its lesbian content so the reader has a choice as to whether or not they want to read about lesbian love scenes. One has to wonder why it is omitted when it is so blatantly advertised when it involves heterosexuals, which at least gives the reader a choice as to whether they want erotica or not. I am a bit tired of being manipulated, by a lack of transparency, into reading books I might not have chosen. If it happens again, I will simply return the book, unfinished.

When the book opens Rachel (orphan 8) is a tantrum throwing 4 year-old. At the end she is a middle- aged spinster disappointed with life. Rachel has the misfortune soon after her mother’s death to be the “material” for a woman doctor seeking to make her way in a man’s world. The repercussions of the experiment color all of Rachel’s life. Told in alternating chapters switching between the young Rachel and the middle-aged Rachel, we understand why she is disappointed. We also know that she has had many opportunities most orphans never have and Rachel has failed to appreciate.
Rachel is creatively and skillfully written, unfortunately, we see all the remaining characters through the prism of Rachel. These other characters remain flat throughout and the book ends too early. I would have liked another chapter or two to see the “redeemed” Rachel if, indeed, she is.
Book group will find a number of topics – orphanages, betrayal, family loyalty, medical care/experimentation, women’s opportunities, assisted suicide, lesbianism, charity, revenge – to discuss.
3 of 5 stars

Historical part was fascinating and disturbing that these things actually went on. The fictional part seemed a little forced.

The story is told in alternating time periods, which really worked well for me! We follow Rachel and Sam as they experience many of the historical events of the first half of the twentieth century; the orphanage, the depression, WWII, and now the post-war period. Grown-up Rachel is a nurse working in a home for the elderly on floor 5, where it is understood patients come to spend their final days. When Dr. Mildred Solomon appears as one of her patients, Rachel recognizes her as the doctor who ‘treated’ her at the orphanage. Meeting the doctor again triggers painful memories for Rachel and leads to ethical decisions she must make as she faces her past.

This book will make a fantastic book club selection! There are so many discussion points a group can touch on; medical experimentation, gay marriage, foster care, the Holocaust and Nazis, and Israel and Palestine, to mention just a few. The book touches on many of the same issues that were touched on in All I Know and Love, but in my opinion, this one did it so much better! .