Relationships between mother and daughter have appeared in literature repeatedly.

The guilt and crimes of Sethe, the mother in Toni Morrison's Beloved, are different from Ingrid's. Whereas Sethe's decisions are largely dictated by the unhappy historical circumstance of having a child while escaping slavery, Ingrid's choices are totally selfcentered. Both Astrid and Denver, however, find it necessary to find coping strategies to survive their mother's unstable mental states. Their coming-of-age is forced upon them by their circumstances. In Amy Tan's The Kitchen God's Wife, Winnie shows her daughter Pearl how to claim the present and future, regardless of the past. Astrid, on the other hand, must figure out how to do that on her own.

Having acknowledged her admiration of Joyce Carol Oates' work, Fitch would be familiar with the many coming of age stories that Oates has written over the years.

Unlike Fitch, however, most...