Skateaway

The Story

Skateaway chronicles three stages -- preteen, late teen, and early adult -- in the lives of Clem, Garrett, and Samantha Boone, who try to lead a conventional childhood in a small town somewhere in the Ohio River valley, in spite of their unconventional parents. Their father, Kendall, is an artist battling mental illness; more important, their mother, Mercer, is an OB-GYN who performs abortions. Many of the more difficult moments in the Eves of these children inflate to disproportionate size because they occur against the backdrop of a conservative, blue-collar community. Often the Boones are forced to confront the taunts of schoolmates, the rumors spread by neighbors, and the threats of violence from anti-abortion protesters. As hard as they try to Lead normal lives, neither Clem, Garrett, nor Samantha can resist the impulse to escape, each in his or her own way, because their Eves are anything but normal, as the harrowing climax of the novel demonstrates. They're as cool and slippery -- and as brittle and breakable -- as ice.