Jan Cherubin

The Orphan’s Daughter, a first novel by Jan Cherubin, subtly illustrates a child, Joanna, who is obsessed with her father Clyde, feeling incomplete without his love and attention. As Joanna grows up, she begins to understand slowly, over time, that she was abused by this man she loves so obsessively. As the title indicates, the orphan Clyde is the center of this galaxy, and Joanna is merely the daughter, the satellite reflecting his brilliance.

The story switches from Clyde’s deathbed, Clyde’s memoirs of his years in a Hebrew orphanage for boys, and Joanna’s fitful memories of her own childhood. Clyde has lived a long life. He is very sick, and most everyone realizes that his time has come. Joanna hysterically races cross-country to stay by his side, working night and day to care for him, desperate to keep him alive. Everyone else seems content to say goodbye to Clyde, his brothers and sisters, his ex-wife who is Joanna’s mother, Joanna’s sister Susan, the students he's mentored, and his current, much younger wife, who is anxious to be free of him. Joanna is unable to move on, and feels she is Clyde’s only hope, his savior, the only one who is not giving up on him.

It’s painful to watch Joanna try, in Clyde’s last days, to become the favorite daughter, the friend, the confidant, and the child who still longs for her father’s love and wisdom. But this book is about family dysfunction, and the Aronson family is clearly developed in this interesting novel.… (altro)