Libby Earle Henry was born into a highly dysfunctional family and has spent her life trying to adapt in a functional world. Her mother, Beal suffers from an undiagnosed personality disorder, which Libby has painfully navigated from childhood. Beal's upbringing exemplifies all the clichés about Appalachia, no electricity, no indoor plumbing, only mules for transportation,
poorly educated, and a refusal to embrace the modern world. It's no wonder Beal takes the first chance to escape her environment through education but ultimately has an affair with a married man, Libby's father. A married man older than Beal's own parents. An ill-suited match with disastrous consequences. While Beal creates constant family conflict, Earl, Libby's father, tries in vain to keep the peace. He provides stability with his Southern charm and dry sense of humor but his no nonsense approach to life is often undermined by his daughter's teenage misadventures and Beal's remonstrances. Not having the opportunities that Libby has, Beal lived vicariously through her daughter's short-lived modeling career, her high school romances, and especially, when her daughter marries into a well-to-do family with political connections. Beal approves of Libby when she fulfilled her mother's unfulfilled dreams but was ruthless when she didn't. When Libby's marriage ends, she loses the precarious support of her mother. Libby soon learns she is only as good as the husband she's married to, even if it means staying with an abuser being investigated by the FBI.
Libby's story, emotionally challenging at times and laugh-out-loud hilarious at other's is an engaging page-turner that takes readers from the backwoods of Lincoln County, Kentucky, to Louisville, Lexington, New York, Hilton Head, Indiana, Florida, and New England. Her candor and wittiness make her a good traveling companion.
