Zimmerman~ The Orphan Master
- Zebra Reads
- May 2, 2023
- 3 min read
The Orphan Master is a period history drama by Jean Zimmerman published in 2012.
Zimmerman was born in 1957 in the US, so she is a contemporary author. She is really an interesting woman, though. She is actually also an arborist, and has a website dedicated to trees called The Blog Cabin, which I thought was endearingly clever. Her and her husband Gil, who is also a writer, apparently spend their days in what looks to be an extremely quaint little log cabin writing away in their slippers.
I mean, honestly Jean Zimmerman seems to be the exact person I wanted to be when I grew up. I didn’t quite get there, but she seemed to have been successful, which I absolutely love.
But, the Orphanmaster, published in 2012 was actually her first fiction book. She has since followed up with a couple of others, but she got her start writing non-fiction. Her interest is on the history of New York and it really focuses on the role of women in a historical context. Her non-fiction books certainly reflect this (see The Women of the House: how a colonial she-merchant built a mansion, a fortune, and a dynasty). But this comes through in the Orphamaster and her second fiction book Savage Girl seems as though it would have similar threads.
What it’s about: The back of the book claims it’s a love story, though it is more mystery than love story. The setting is in early colonial New York (then New Amsterdam), and the plot revolves around a series of disappearances, all children, all orphans. The back of the book also implies that the main protagonists, Blandine van Couvering and Edward Drummond, help to solve the murders, which somewhat stretches the truth. The disappearances of the orphans lead to a general fear of the Witika, a Native American-based boogie man that eats human flesh. This leads to irrational accusations being bandied about and much confusion, preventing the colony from discovering the true identity of the child abductor. In the end, leveler heads prevail, though not before much needless tragedy and bloodshed.
My take: The Orphanmaster is one of the types of books I would have picked up to read simply for pleasure. However, it has the same problem many other historically set novels have: It doesn’t know if it’s a mystery taking place in the backdrop of a Dutch colony or if it’s a historical description of Dutch colonial life with a rash of orphan killings as its McGuffin. I preferred it as the latter. While I was intrigued by the descriptions and depictions of both the Dutch colonists themselves and the culture of 17th century America, I was disappointed in the mystery. The perpetrator was revealed to the reader quite early and the remainder of the book was spent with the characters alternatively insisting nothing bad was happening and completely overreacting to the bad things happening. Unfortunately, for those hopeless romantics out there, the love story wasn’t much more endearing.
Who should read it: Anyone who is interested in early American history (pre-Revolutionary War) or Dutch culture might enjoy the read. It was full of compelling descriptions of Dutch society that explained some of the charcteristics still used to describe those with Dutch ancestry today (e.g. their frugality and their industriousness). If you enjoy mysteries, it might be one to put on your list, but to get through it you will have to have at least a passing interest in the historical setting and be able to deal with the issues I’ve described below. While I would not call it a love story, there is a bit of romance, and for someone who really enjoys a story with some sexual tension between two characters, it does have that in spades.
Who should not read it: For a light novel, it is particularly adult. There is sex and some swearing, though both are quite tame. The more disturbing aspects are those dealing with death, which includes some graphic descriptions of disembowelment, cannibalism, and dismemberment. This is made all the more disturbing because many of the victims are, of course, children. It probably isn’t a good choice for anyone with a sensitive disposition, or who deals poorly with injustice (there is quite a lot of that throughout). Much of the violence comes off as being there purely for shock value, rather than to advance the plot, so if gratuitous evil is not your thing, steer clear. Even the bad guy ends up with a punishment that, while fitting, is still quite disturbing.
Bottom Line: It tries to be too many things, but at least it has something to offer to everyone.
Want to Read the Orphan Master?