Annie Weatherwax is an accomplished visual artist and sculptor. In her debut novel, All We Had, she crafts three-dimensional, multifaceted characters and infuses gritty humor and poignancy into the story of the hardscrabble existence of a mother and daughter.
Ruthie Carmichael, the narrator, is a precocious, jaded 13-year-old who lives with her 29-year-old mother, Rita--a woman with "movie-star looks and Oscar-worthy acting." Together, they're poverty-stricken drifters, moving from town to town in California, until they decide to cut and run from Rita's latest beau (one of many) who has taken them in. They head East in their beat-up 1993 Ford Escort, as Rita has high hopes that one day Ruthie will attend Harvard. When their car breaks down in Fat River, N.Y., the extended detour seems like more hardship in a string of difficulties for the penniless pair. But after Rita and Ruthie are befriended and offered jobs by the owner of a local diner, the breakdown appears suddenly providential.
Quirky townsfolk--each with their own challenges, including a transgender waitress and an older couple who owns the hardware store--welcome and support Rita and Ruthie in their effort to put down roots. But when Rita falls for a slick mortgage broker who helps her qualify for a subprime housing loan she cannot afford, it seems possible mother and daughter may slip back into old habits. Weatherwax's tight dialogue and short, emotionally charged scenes examine hope, the meaning of home and the unbreakable bond of love between mother and daughter. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines