If a book could make getting old and moving to a retirement community sound fun, this is it. The folks in this story are not doddering old people put out to pasture, they're bad-asses who still got it. This foursome follows along with the police duo assigned to a murder but are, in fact, a step or two ahead of the law the whole way. Funny, warm and very well written, it was a delight.
If we're honest, most of us feel we fell far short of the "ideal parent" mark and wish we'd done things better, differently, been more sensitive or savvy. But most of us don't leave. The author and her two brothers find themselves mom-less when she takes off in her blue car to assume a cameo role in her kids' lives forevermore. It's a tale as old as time, but it doesn't mean kids don't feel it. I felt sorry for everyone in this book: the kids, obviously, the long-suffering father, trying to make ends meet while keeping his kids on a path of some sort, and even the mom, who clearly seems to have some undiagnosed mental illness. Melissa's story is heartbreaking and brittle, but there is redemption and forgiveness in there, too.
This book, written by one of the only people to have such access to the inside dirt, is a telling expose of an extremely dysfunctional family that was supremely successful at creating 45, a person without a conscience. Although it was enlightening, and I felt sympathy for the children they created and then pretty much destroyed, I don't want their first to be absolved of his responsibility to decent in even the most basic way. Sad, maddening and frustrating. Definitely read another book at the same time so you go on and
enjoy the day.
