The Conditions of Love by Dale M. Kushner

Ī teenage girl endures fire, flood and the loss of her parents in this bracing, oddly uplifting debut.

This engaging examination of a mother and daughter's relationship will appeal to the same audience that embraced Mona Simpson's acclaimed classic Anywhere But Here and Elizabeth Strout's bestselling Amy and Isabelle. Through sheer force of will, Eunice saves herself from a doomed life. At once fable and realistic story, The Conditions of Love is a book about emotional and physical survival. In this, she is both ordinary and heroic. Through her capacity to redefine herself, reject bitterness and keep her heart open, she survives and flourishes. Rescued by the shaman-like Rose, Eunice's odyssey continues with a stay in a hermit's shack and ends with a passionate love affair with an older man. A freak storm sends Eunice away from all things familiar. But her hope dissolves when Sam gets kicked out, and she is again alone with her mother. When her mother's lover, the devoted Sam, moves in, Eunice imagines her life will finally become normal. Abandoned by her father as an infant, Eunice worries that she will become a misfit like her mother. In 1953, ten-year-old Eunice lives in the backwaters of Wisconsin with her outrageously narcissistic mother, a manicureeste and movie star worshipper. Kushner's novel The Conditions of Love traces the journey of a girl from childhood to adulthood as she reckons with her parents' abandonment, her need to break from society's limitations, and her overwhelming desire for spiritual and erotic love.

The Conditions of Love by Dale M. Kushner