Andrea Portes, Hick

Hick

Unbridled, May 2007, $14.95

ISBN: 1932961321

In Palmyra, Nebraska, thirteen-year-old Luli McMullen observes the usual "That's Life" scenario between her parents. She has seen the replay so often she can give a drink by drink description of what will happen next. It always ends with her dad Nicholas and her mom Tammy drunk and arguing over who will take her home with the heroic bartender Ray stepping in and driving her home.

This time something different occurs to her. Instead of taking her directly home, twenty-eight-year-old Ray kisses her as if she is a beautiful woman before dropping her off. That kiss emboldens Luli who decides her only escape from her parents is to find a sugar daddy in Vegas. Thus she begins hitching her way to Nevada using her newly found sexual prowess as a ticket starting with Eddie "gimp" Kreezer. However it is when Glenda the con artist takes her under her wings that Luli learns to fly amidst a myriad of rootless Americans.

HICK is not an easy novel to read as Luli is forced to grow up too soon. Her understanding that her only ticket to exit her purgatorial version of the movie Groundhog's Day is her body; this gloomy thought of a thirteen-year-old ready to use sex to make it adds to the darkness that engulfs her surroundings. Yet somehow, in spite of her background, she has a deep belief in herself that she will make it even if that means being promiscuous to do so. Not for everyone, readers will appreciate this coming of age saga amidst the American nomadic populace.

Harriet Klausner