It's the early 1980s, and tomboy Frankie Hawthorne's world is overturned when her beloved father--a Vietnam amputee who masks depression by playing comedian--shoots himself. Frankie's neighborhood, in a down-at-the-heels industrial city near Boston, has had its own happier times. Left behind along with Frankie are her mother, Gerrie, a waitress at Friendly's, and a sweetly innocent younger brother, Teddy.Soon, Frankie decides not to talk, resisting the overly ebullient school psychologist, and comforting herself by drawing cartoons. Gerri, now chain-smoking and addicted to television--Doris...
It's the early 1980s, and tomboy Frankie Hawthorne's world is overturned when her beloved father--a Vietnam amputee who masks depression by playing co...