A beautifully written and heart-breaking tale of how the traumas and emotional starvations of childhood carry over to adult life and relationships.  Told with flashbacks to a long hospitalization during which her mother visits her for the first time in years, Lucy struggles to overcome a childhood of extreme poverty, privation, and emotional trauma.  A father with post-WWII PTSD, a mother whose origins are lost in the story but certainly without love and affection, and a childhood filled with rejection and stigma fail to keep Lucy from overcoming those hurdles to become a successful writer—ruthless to quote a term from Jeremy.  AIDS, New York City, writing, divorce, children all swirl around this sad but lovely tale which ends with “All life amazes me.”