Boomerang

By Adam W. Wiktorek

iUniverse

2001, trade paper, 319 pages, $17.95

            It started with the waifs living and fighting for food and shelter in the streets of New York and other large cities of the east.  Do-gooders, mostly ministers and missionaries dreamed up the institution they dubbed "Orphan Trains."  The managers of these trains swept up children of all ages, many orphaned by the ills of poverty and a devastating flu epidemic.

            The children were all supposed to go to Christian homes -- to childless couples who would give them the love and care they deserved and desperately needed.  The lucky children went to couples who really wanted them.  True Christians, willing to offer strangers a home and a replacement family. The unlucky ones went to men and women who were little more than slavers.

            Boomerang is the story of Jacob, the youngest of a family of orphaned children who were sent west on the Orphan Train.  When he is released from bitter servitude and abuse by the death of his adopted father Jacob sets out on the cold trail of his real family.

            This story is a heartbreaking commentary on the evil that lives in the heart of some men and women and the simple goodness in others.  To imagine that Jacob would eventually find every single one of his family and that they would all be well, is stretching the plot considerably, but I couldn't stop reading.  Boomerang flows well.  History and fiction are deftly intertwined to create an excellent read.

A.H.Holt, editor

WesternFictionReview

May 2004