Charlotte never knew her father. He died before she was born. She never really knew much about him either. Her father's parents were not part of her life. And her mother was schizophrenic and frequently hospitalized and not a reliable source of information.
So Charlotte lived with her mother's parents mostly. At one point her mother remarried and Charlotte came to live with the mother and her husband. But it didn't last. The marriage ended and the mother went back into the hospital.
The grandparents were probably not the best choice for raising a child. At least under their care Charlotte had all her physical needs met. She was well groomed, decently clothed, had regular meals and attended school. When with her mother, though, she lived in filth and squalor, neglected and ignored by a mother too drunk or too crazy to see that her child needed her care and attention.
When Charlotte was about sixteen, the grandparents decided they were fed up with taking care of her and of her mentally ill mother. They bought the mother a travel trailer and sent Charlotte off to live with the mother. But the mother was the same drunken, demented person she always was. On the other hand, Charlotte was now old enough to not need to be taken care of like a little child. And this time with her mother built a closeness the led to the truth being revealed about the father's death.
The mother in this story really is annoying, a very disagreeable character. Drunk, neglectful, crazy: who needs that kind of drama in their life? Whether in reality or in a novel? She just made me so tired. The whole story is the struggle of the child trying to cope with her mother and her grandparents and her trying to unravel the truth of her father's demise. It was an okay read, I guess.
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