Rory Dawn Hendrix is third generation in a line of poor, drunk, addicted, and abused women. Both her grandmother and mother have escaped unhappy relationships by running away to Reno, where they live on La Calle de las Flores, a dusty trailer park where drinking, gambling, poverty, and unhappiness abound. While Grandma spends her paychecks on slot machines and her Mom on booze, Rory finds comfort in the teachings of The Girl Scout Handbook. There, on the pages of a copy so worn out that the librarian has removed it from the shelves and given it to her as a gift, Rory finds practical life lessons and a message that encourages her to persevere. The Girl Scout Handbook is her safe haven from the tough reality of life on the Calle.
Like Rory's grandmother's garden, Girlchild tells of the possibility of beautiful things sprouting under the most unlikely conditions. As the story moves forward, it becomes more and more difficult for us to expect that Rory will ever avoid the fate of the women before her, "apparent imbeciles, feeble-minded bastards surely on the road to whoredom." With every cruel blow that life delivers—and there are many—we hope that Rory will find the strength to keep on going. And she does. This is not a happy book, yet I finished it with a sense that if there is hope for Rory, there is hope for all of us.
Like Rory's grandmother's garden, Girlchild tells of the possibility of beautiful things sprouting under the most unlikely conditions. As the story moves forward, it becomes more and more difficult for us to expect that Rory will ever avoid the fate of the women before her, "apparent imbeciles, feeble-minded bastards surely on the road to whoredom." With every cruel blow that life delivers—and there are many—we hope that Rory will find the strength to keep on going. And she does. This is not a happy book, yet I finished it with a sense that if there is hope for Rory, there is hope for all of us.
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