When I first read this, I couldn't help but think that it seemed like something out of a movie: a woman grows up thinking her mother died in a car crash, but later she discovers it was something much more complicated. I feel Carlisle did a great job of guiding readers through her story. Kelly's desire to know more about her mother is realistic, and I was rooting for her to find answers.
I found myself feeling sorry for Kelly. What must it be like, I wondered, to grow up not knowing anything about your parents? How would it be for years to believe your mother died in a car crash, only to discover she was actually murdered? While I understand it might have been inappropriate to tell a young child that her mother was murdered, I don't think sheltering her with a lie was the best idea either.
I thought Kelly handled discovering her mother was a prostitute fairly well.. I don't think it deterred her from wanting to feel some connection with her mother. I think it was brave of Kelly to describe her mother as she was found: spread-eagle with the beer can next to her foot. She could've glossed over a lot of the graphic details, yet she decided to go with the truth, which I found to be a bold move on her part. As a writer, she had the ability to glamorize her mothers murder, yet she used what really happened to evoke emotion in the reader and show she wasn't ashamed of her mother's circumstances.
I wish Kelly would've learned more about her mother at the end of this story; however, that sort of ending seems to be reserved for a fiction work, so I probably shouldn't have been expecting that everything to work out...because obviously life doesn't always work out that way.
You make a good point about the candor in the piece.
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