Saturday's Child

Devilishly sharp a masterful balance of psychological excavation and sumptuous description.Kirkus ReviewsAn only child, Deborah Burns grew up in prim 1950s America in the shadow of her beautiful, unconventional, rule-breaking mother, Dorothya red-haired beauty who looked like Rita Hayworth and skirted norms with a style and flair that made her the darling of men and women alike. Married to the son of a renowned Italian family with ties to the underworld, Dorothy fervently eschewed motherhood and domesticity, turning Deborah over to her spinster aunts to raise while she was the star of a vibrant social life. As a child, Deborah revered her charismatic mother, but Dorothy was a woman full of secrets with a troubled pasta mistress of illusion whose love seemed just out of her daughters grasp.In vivid, lyrical prose, Saturdays Child tells the story of Deborahs eccentric upbringing and her quest in midlife, long after her parents death, to uncover the truth about her mother and their complex relationship. No longer under the spell of her maternal goddess, but still caught in a wrenching cycle of love and longing, Deborah must finally confront the reality of her mothers legacyand finally claim her own.