Shelby Richmond's life is irrevocably altered in the instant her car spins out of control and leaves her passenger and best friend, Helene, in a vegetative state. Shelby spends time in a psychiatric ward where she is repeatedly raped by a caregiver, and then returns to her parents' basement where her transformation from a confident, popular teenager into a drug-addicted loner is completed. Her new best friend and former classmate is a drug dealer, Ben Wick. Shelby and Ben eventually move together to New York, where Ben begins to turn his life around. Shelby's survivor guilt leads to crippling self loathing, and she is incapable of returning Ben's devotion. She begins a relationship with a married man who practices serial infidelity. Having pushed Ben out of her life for her affair, she is totally alone except for a strong friendship with a woman who works at a pet store with her. Throughout the years since the accident, Shelby shows unfailing kindness and compassion for the lost and lonely.
As with all the Hoffman novels I have read there is a mystical quality that requires a suspension of disbelief for many of the coincidences and situations. It is impossible not to care about Shelby as she emerges slowly from her self-imposed exile and begins to value herself.
As with all the Hoffman novels I have read there is a mystical quality that requires a suspension of disbelief for many of the coincidences and situations. It is impossible not to care about Shelby as she emerges slowly from her self-imposed exile and begins to value herself.
