So Much Bad in the Best of Us

"Life is suffering so no use building a shrine to it."

Loretta Nelson, or Lolo as she likes to be called, is no stranger to loss. It began with the death of her mother during childbirth; a crime for which her drunk of a father blames her. He wants nothing to do with her except to degrade and abuse, pawning her off on her nanny, Miss Sarah, then his secretary Margaret, and finally the Sisters at Blessed Sacrament boarding school. Life gets better, life gets worse, life goes on, and she manages to survive.

It's the late 1950s and early '60s in a small Midwestern town. Lolo wants a family, but more than that, she wants someone to love her for who she is, not the killer her father accuses her of being. This quest for love, by a desperate child who barely knows what love is, weaves a story of lies, theft, sexual exploration, and child abuse. All of it secrets she must keep behind a facade of humor and bravado. But everything and everyone Lolo loves seems to disappear leaving her more and more vulnerable.

The sudden death of her father (did she kill both her parents?) reveals a man she never knew. How could there be so much bad in the best of us?