Growing Up In Appalachia Is 'The Great Riddle Of My Life,' Says 'Marilou' Author
A 14-year-old loner named Cindy finds her own maternal figure in Sarah Elaine Smith's first novel, set in the part of rural Pennsylvania where the author grew up.
Sarah Elaine Smith's first novel finds poetry in dispiriting surroundings.
Here's how Cindy, the central character in Marilou Is Everywhere, describes her life in rural Pennsylvania at the age of 14:
I used to think my troubles got legs the summer Jude Vanderjohn disappeared, but now I see how they started much earlier.
Before that summer, the things that happened to me were air and water and just as see-thru. They were real but I didn't care for them much.
