“Devilishly sharp… a masterful balance of psychological excavation and sumptuous description.”
—Kirkus Reviews
An only child, Deborah Burns grew up in prim 1950s America in the shadow
of her beautiful, unconventional, rule-breaking mother, Dorothy—a
red-haired beauty who looked like Rita Hayworth and skirted norms with a
style and flair that made her the darling of men and women alike.
Married to the son of a renowned Italian family with ties to the
underworld, Dorothy fervently eschewed motherhood and domesticity,
turning Deborah over to her spinster aunts to raise while she was the
star of a vibrant social life. As a child, Deborah revered her
charismatic mother, but Dorothy was a woman full of secrets with a
troubled past—a mistress of illusion whose love seemed just out of her
daughter’s grasp.
In vivid, lyrical prose, Saturday’s Child tells the story of
Deborah’s eccentric upbringing and her quest in midlife, long after her
parents’ death, to uncover the truth about her mother and their complex
relationship. No longer under the spell of her maternal goddess, but
still caught in a wrenching cycle of love and longing, Deborah must
finally confront the reality of her mother’s legacy—and finally claim
her own.
