Summary

Introduction

A very brief introduction sums up the evils of Maurice's world very clearly. It opens on action, when he is 6 years old, with a strange woman chasing his father's girlfriend with a hammer. He doesn't recognize that the strange woman is his mother because he hasn't seen her in months and the drugs have taken their toll. She doesn't recognize her own son because an undiagnosed case of ringworm has shriveled him. But it is in that meeting, when mother and son are reunited, that Maurice feels happy. He knows his mother has come back for him.

Chapter 1

After the brief introduction, the author, Laura, tells of an ordinary day on Sept. 1, 1986. She is 35 years old, and a successful ad agent for USA Today. She was supposed to bring a client to her front row seats at the U.S. Open, but weather...