<p>"I was ten the summer we drove my mother crazy." And so starts this captivating debut novel, narrated by ten-year-old Rainey Dougherty. It's August 1953 in Four Corners, New York, when Rainey's mother is hospitalized for mental instability--or, as Rainey's father puts it, when the doctors say she needs a good long rest. Rainey and her four siblings find themselves at the mercy of Merle, their caustically funny and bitter aunt who comes up to the country from the Bronx--with her troubled fourteen-year-old daughter, Joan--to take care of that "goddamn bunch of nuts" she knows these children are. This starts a summer of enlightenment for Rainey when she learns about the realities of life through the eyes of innocence. And, though it seems strange at first, Merle's voice is the one clear note in Rainey's head as she begins a season without her mother, a season that brings both the young girls to the brink of disaster, again and again. For Rainey, it is a season that is often harro</p>

Four Corners (Harvest Book);Harvest Book

Literature & Fiction

Freund, Diane

Genre Fiction

Harvest Books

<p>When ten year old Rainey Dougherty's mother is hospitalized for mental instability, Rainey and her four siblings find themselves at the mercy of Merle, their irreverently funny and bitter aunt, who comes up to the country from the Bronx with her troubled fourteen year old daughter Joan, to take care of that goddamn bunch of nuts she knows these children are. For Rainey, this starts a summer of enlightenment where she learns about the realities of life through the eyes of innocence. We chart Rainey's course through a year that is often harrowing, sometimes hilarious, but always hopeful. Merle's voice is the one clear note in Rainey's head as she begins a season without her mother, a season that brings both Joan and Rainey again and again to the brink of disaster.</p>

Four Corners

Short Stories & Anthologies

MACADAM/CAGE.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Freund, Diane. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Freund, Diane