The Center of Everything- Laura Moriarty

#73. The Center of Everything- Laura Moriarty

Evelyn Bucknow is the illegitimate daughter of a chronically unemployed woman who is really struggling through life. At the start of the novel, Evelyn is young, trying to understand her place in the world. Her mother, Tina, became pregnant at a young age, and the father never stuck around. Tina's father apparently disowned her- there's a heart-wrenching scene near the beginning where father and daughter attempt to reunite, but the father can't let the past die, and Tina (rightfully, I thought) refuses to let his slurs slide. Evelyn's intelligent, hardworking, but she longs for acceptance, while Tina struggles to make ends meet and goes on making bad decisions (or were they? I questioned her motives from time to time and often wondered if her choices weren't made in order to get ahead by any means necessary). She takes up with a married man and finds herself yet again, a single mother.

Evelyn never really questions her mother's failures, she just accepts them as her reality and squares her shoulders, but you get the feeling that she views her mother as her personal example of 'how not to.' This is a wistful coming-of-age story. Evelyn searches for her own path, flounders a little, dabbles in different ways to find meaning, but ultimately realizes that she must blaze her own path into the future, even if it means leaving behind those she loves. This was lovely, along with being difficult to review- Evelyn's a bystander to much of the plot, watching as events unfold around her. But she's still strong, at times unwavering. There are some really bittersweet scenes dealing with one of her friends and how things turn out for her, and Evelyn struggles with her feelings in regards to this. Beautiful writing, and I'm curious about the author's other books now. :)