Frankie, curious about her young womanhood, irritates many of the nuns, who, out of fear, behave cruelly to their pubescent charges. The orphanage is Catholic which plays heavily into the story. If I weren’t already hooked by the ghost-narrator, the mystery, wildness, and subtle delicacy would draw me right in. Then Frankie hears a fox cry in the distance. Likening her to an abalone cup, the narrating ghost says, “Frankie traced the pearlescent edge of the shell with her finger,” observes that it still wasn’t broken, and neither was Frankie. The writing is lyrical only when it needs to be-such as the opening. The narrator is a deceased young woman-a ghost-who is able to see what just about everyone and anyone is doing-or thinking. Set in late Depression era in Chicago, we see all of society struggling in this National Book Award finalist.
When their mother dies, Frankie and her siblings are sent to an orphanage until their Italian immigrant father can pull himself together and provide for them in Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All (Balzer & Bray 2019) by Laura Ruby.
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